A Consideration on the Cheon Seong Gyeong Passage Concerning the “Fall,” the Inner Meaning of Sin, and the Statement that “Adam and Eve Are God’s Body”

 

A Consideration on the Cheon Seong Gyeong Passage Concerning the “Fall,” the Inner Meaning of Sin, and the Statement that “Adam and Eve Are God’s Body”

Introduction.

This essay examines a passage from the Cheon Seong Gyeong that describes Adam and Eve as “God’s external body.” When interpreted literally, this expression appears to create conceptual and logical contradictions within the framework of the Divine Principle. The purpose of this reflection is to clarify the meaning of the passage and to propose a more coherent, principled understanding.

1. Citation from the Cheon Seong Gyeong.

“The archangel—Satan—who deprived God of the ideal of love that He intended to realize through Adam and Eve, who were His external body, is the devil.”

(Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 1110)

2. Interpreting the Passage from the Perspective of the Divine Principle.

According to the Divine Principle,

• God exists as the Subject of creation, the spiritual Original Being, the Parent of humankind, and the Lord of dominion.

• A perfected human being exists as the object partner, the substantial being of spirit and flesh, the image-like child of God, and the object of God’s dominion.

A perfected human becomes the temple in which God’s spiritual substance dwells. The image-like elements of God’s spiritual essence (saengso, 生素) reside within the spirit mind (saengsim, 生心) of the human spirit self.

If we interpret the cited passage literally—namely, that Adam and Eve themselves are “God’s external body”—then several contradictions arise.

If a portion of God’s absolute spiritual essence dwells within His children, this does not mean that the children thereby become God’s body, nor that they acquire the status of the Parent.

Such an interpretation collapses the conceptual hierarchy between Parent and child, confuses the logical order of the Principle, and leads to conceptual leaps and contradictions.

The expression:

“Children who embody the image-like elements of the Parent’s spiritual substance”

should therefore be understood symbolically or metaphorically, meaning:

“A perfected child inherits and reflects the absolute value of the Parent.”

A literal reading produces theological and doctrinal problems:

• Could God’s body be the object of Satan’s temptation?

• Could God’s body be crucified and undergo death?

• Was Jesus’ final cry on the cross—

“My Father, why have You forsaken me? If possible, let this cup pass from me…”—

a prayer of God addressed to Himself?

Such questions invite confusion and even ridicule from critics, providing fertile ground for misunderstanding and attack.

3. Conclusion.

The cited passage should be understood not literally, but as a symbolic or metaphorical expression indicating that:

“A perfected child inherits and embodies the absolute value of the Parent.”

This interpretation preserves both the internal logic of the Divine Principle and the proper relational order between God and human beings.

Thank you.