On Tuesday 7 May 2002 MT wrote:

> Who is man basically, in a unificationism point of view?

Man is God's second self, the incarnation and embodiment of God, visible God, God's love partner. God created humanity so that He would have a partner in love. God's love partner is not just man or just woman but the harmonized couple united in true love. You can find so many examples in Rev. Moon's teachings on the subject of man's role as God's love object. Here is one I was reading today:

Men and women are meant to be the temples of God, so when love grows within them, the dwelling of God comes closer and closer. In other words, the time when the love between men and women can be consummated is the same time when their love for God can be consummated and completed. When God-centered men and women consummate their love, God also feels the fulfillment of His love. ...

In the circling motion of family love there is the father's position, the mother's position, the children's position, as well as God's position. That is what we call the Heavenly four-position foundation. God, on the vertical line, is connected with the children; the father and mother are connected on the horizontal line. When millions of these Heavenly four-position foundations fill the earth, that will be what we call Heaven on earth. ...

In this Heavenly four-position foundation, you can experience love of the children, love of the parents, love of husband, love of wife, and love of God. Learning these things qualifies you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; without these you cannot dwell there, either here on earth on in the spirit world. What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is like a storehouse of all these loves-of the parents, the children, husband and wife. It is where they can dwell after being harvested. That is what we call Heaven. That particular result can only come through living within a Heavenly four-position foundation here on earth; by practicing these loves you will attain the proper qualification to enter Heaven in spirit world.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, June 7, 1986
http://www.unification.net/1986/860607.html

When man and woman unite in love, then they become a suitable object to God's love which can be manifested in the couple united in love based on truth, true love. God, man, woman and children represent the four position foundation which is the foundation for the eternal manifestation of God's nature on Earth, through the God-centered family. God wants to create a lineage on the Earth of His own children. The people on the Earth today represent Satan's lineage, the results of the Fall of Man which gave rise to the history of human sin. Heaven is the place where God's love is everywhere. This world was intended by God to be Heaven, and man and woman were to be at the center of that Heaven, as visible God in the flesh. The Heaven in the eternal spiritual world is the place where those who practiced true love in the family on Earth go to dwell for eternity.

When we as humans manifest the true love of God on Earth, there will be no more unbelievers who say that they do not believe in God, because they will be able to see the living God in the flesh in each man and woman who become such embodiments of true love. Then God will cease to be invisible, but will take on visible form, human form. That is the greatness of man, and of course woman too. Each human being reflects a unique aspect of God's nature and so has the same value as God Himself. Such a human being inherits God's power, all that He possesses, and His eternal love, and all that God can do comes at the disposal of such human beings, even the power of co-creators.

I hope that begins to answer your question, although surely one could write whole books on the philosophical and theological question of "Who is man?"

Sincerely,

Damian Anderson
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