What the Unification Church Teaches about God

By: Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon; ©1999
The God of the Unification Church is an odd, seemingly finite creature who seems to have trouble controlling his emotions and accomplishing his objectives.

 

What the Unification Church Teaches about God


The God of the Unification Church is an odd, seemingly finite creature who seems to have trouble controlling his emotions and accomplishing his objectives. Far from the holy and sovereign Lord of the Scripture, Moon’s God is in many ways similar to the pagan deities, although still conceived of as an infinite energy. Here are several characteristics of the UC God.

God is energy. “God is energy itself.”[1] God is “perpetual self-generating energy.” [2]

God is dependent on man for His well being. As a solitary being, God is lonely apart from man:

Even almighty God cannot experience the value of love, life and His ideal when He is alone. That is why God created His object, man.[3]

Since God did not know how man would respond to His providence for the Messiah, He had no choice but to predict two contradictory results.[4]

In a way God fears man… because of man’s ability to betray.[5]

If the desire of God and the desire of man differ, God’s will cannot be achieved. [6]

We are the loneliest group in the world, because God actually wants to be with us, but He can’t. He cannot be with us all the time. [7]</blockquote.

When the Fall occurred “God lost everything. Everything went to pieces.” [8] God lost his love, happiness, peace and even the whole creation.[9] God also lost everything at the crucifixion. If man does not “restore” God, He will remain “lost.” God has desperately searched for a man for 6,000 years to help Him:

He is a Being to be pitied…. His heart is aching and torn to pieces. [10]

Do not expect God to comfort you. You must com¬fort Him! Our Father is most miserable.[11]

By us and through us it will be possible to… liberate even God.[12]

Through restoration, a man is: “transformed into the holy body of God, your original role. By doing so, you… are restoring God’s own position and dignity.” [13]

God is responsible for evil. Moon teaches that God Himself is largely responsible for the Fall of man, and, in a sense, that God Himself fell. Since the universe is part of God, when it fell, God fell. In part, this explains God’s unhappiness. Even the evil within the universe must be considered the “workings” of God’s body. “God is taking the major responsibility for the fall of man. God is not making any excuse. The parents of children who commit a crime must be held responsible. So God is not denying it, but is taking first responsibility.”[14] (Young Oon Kim, professor at Moon’s Unification Theological Seminary, seems to contradict Moon here, saying just the opposite.[15] ) “The Lord of the Second Advent must judge this evil and corruption and cleanse the world, making it new…. Inwardly speaking, in the realm of heart, families are being destroyed, nations are breaking down…. In this way [inwardly] God is destroying and breaking down the satanic world, while outwardly He is preparing and forming the one world He is to establish.” [16]

God is not a triune being. In Unification theology, the real Trinity is comprised of man, woman and God in proper orientation.[17] Referring to Genesis 1:26 it is said: “This is not because He was speaking as a trinity.” [18]

Even God worships Sun Myung Moon. Michael Scott, a former member, reported that members were taught of Moon:

All the spirit world acknowledged that he was the “Lord of Creation,” the Messiah. Thereupon every spiritual creature, even God Himself had bowed down and worshipped him! [19]

That is the standard: God, the spirit men and all people should look at the True Parents [i.e., Moon and his wife]. [20]

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is seen variously as a female spirit (a creature) and an impersonal element or essence. “There are many who receive revelations indicating that the Holy Spirit is a female Spirit…. The Holy Spirit came as the True Mother.” [21] “The Holy Spirit who worked with Jesus was the element of the original Eve…. [a] female element of God…. When you are speaking of the Holy Spirit, it is all right to say ‘it.’ You don’t need to say ‘she.’ If it’s just wind or power, we can say ‘it’.” [22]

 

Notes

  1. Young Oon Kim, The Divine Principles (San Francisco: HSA-UWC, 1960), p. 4.
  2. Young Oon Kim, Divine Principle and Its Application (Berkeley, CA: The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1960), p. 5, from James Bjornstad, Contemporary Christianity, November-December, 1974, p. 3.
  3. Sun Myung Moon, Christianity in Crisis (Washington, D.C., HSA-UWC, 1973), p. 4.
  4. Ibid., p. 103; cf. Divine Principle (Washington, D.C.; HSA-UWC), pp. 150-152.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Master Speaks, December 14, 1971, p. 1.
  7. Master Speaks, 309, January 9, 1972, p. 3.
  8. Sun Myung Moon, New Hope (Washington, D.C.: HSA-UWC, Inc., 1973), p. 45.
  9. Ibid., p. 73.
  10. Ibid., p. 39.
  11. Master Speaks, 3, p. 14.
  12. Master Speaks, 430, p. 11.
  13. Moon, “The Dignity of God and Man,” The Way of the World, March-April 1977, p. 11.
  14. Master Speaks, 4 (2), p. 8.
  15. Young Oon Kim, Unification Theology & Christian Thought (New York: Golden Gate Publishing Co., 1975), p. 62.
  16. Master Speaks, 4, p. 4.
  17. Divine Principle, pp. 216-218.
  18. Ibid., p. 76.
  19. Moon, New Hope, p. 29.
  20. Contemporary Christianity, Vol. 5, no. 3, January-February 1976, p. 5.
  21. Master Speaks, December 23, 1971, p. 3.
  22. Frederick Sontag, Sun Myung Moon—and the Unification Church (Nashville: Abingdon/Parthenon Press, 1977), p. 192.

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