What is the purpose of creation, and what was God's original ideal?

God's purpose in creation is to experience joy through His relationship with humanity and the natural world. Rooted in God's dual characteristics of internal and external nature, as well as masculinity and femininity, this joy is realized when humanity fulfills the Three Great Blessings: individual perfection, establishing ideal families, and exercising loving dominion over creation. Humanity's fulfillment of these blessings brings mutual joy to both God and humanity.

Understanding the purpose of existence unlocks the meaning of life itself. Without grasping why God created, we wander without direction; with this understanding, every moment becomes meaningful participation in God's eternal plan.

The Foundational Principle: God's Dual Characteristics

To comprehend God's purpose, we must first understand His nature. Just as we can learn about an artist through their work (Romans 1:20), we can understand God by observing creation. All created beings possess dual characteristics: an internal character (invisible, purpose, will) and an external form (visible, physical). For humans, this is mind and body; for animals, instinct and body; for plants, a "plant mind" and body; and even energy and elementary particles possess internal purpose and external form. This pattern reflects the Creator. God is the original being, possessing original internal character (Sung Sang) and original essential external form (Hyung Sang), as well as original essential masculinity and original essential femininity. These are God's Dual Characteristics. God is thus a God of personality, with intellect, emotion, and will, existing as our Heavenly Parent (Genesis 1:26-27).

God's Purpose of Creation: The Pursuit of Joy

The ultimate purpose of creation is for God to experience joy. Nothing exists without a purpose, and the Creator's purpose becomes the purpose of the created entity. God's joy is realized through the dynamic interaction between a subject and an object partner, especially when the object perfectly reflects the subject's original nature and purpose. God created the universe and humanity to be His object partners, through whom He could experience love and happiness. This is not a selfish motivation, as love inherently requires an object toward which it can be directed and expressed. As the Bible states, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). When God finished each stage of creation, He declared it "good," and after creating humanity, He said it was "very good," indicating His profound joy. God is happiest when we resemble His form and character, fulfilling the purposes for which He created us.

The Three Great Blessings as God's Ideal

God's purpose of creation for humanity is encapsulated in the Three Great Blessings given in Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

1. Be Fruitful (Individual Perfection): This means each person must complete their individuality, resembling God's divine nature and character. It signifies the harmonious give-and-receive action between one's mind and body, centered on God's love and guided by conscience. It is about embodying God's wholeness and values, becoming a person of true love, truth, beauty, and goodness. Jesus serves as an example of one who perfectly completed his individuality, giving tremendous joy to God.

2. Increase in Number (Ideal Family and Procreation): Those who have fulfilled individual maturity are to marry and have children, expanding from a family into a tribe, nation, and world. This signifies the completion of the family, embodying God's image as male and female (Genesis 1:27). The harmonious unification of husband and wife reflects God's image, becoming “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6). Through the love of parents, spouses, children, and siblings, the four great loves are established, forming the foundation for a world of true love.

3. Subdue the Earth and Rule Over All Creation (Dominion): This blessing calls humanity to lovingly and wisely manage the natural world. By establishing ideal families, humanity becomes the subject partner of love to the natural world, which serves as the object partner of beauty. Exercising dominion means caring for and stewarding creation, bringing out its original value and purpose, thereby creating an ideal environment for all to thrive.

When humanity fulfills these three blessings, God's original ideal of creation is achieved, and God experiences ultimate joy, recognizing our absolute value and righteousness.

The Same Blessing Repeated to Noah

That these three blessings are indeed the purpose of creation, and not one instruction given once in a garden, is shown by the fact that God said them again. When the flood was over and Noah came out of the ark with his family, God blessed him in almost the same words He had used at the beginning: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered" (Genesis 9:1-2). Individual fruitfulness, the multiplication of a family, and dominion over the created world appear once more, in the same order, spoken to a new beginning of humanity.

The repetition tells us something important. God did not replace His purpose with a lesser one after the Fall, and He did not lower the goal because the first family failed. He restated the identical blessing to the first family He could work with again, which means the blessing was never merely Adam and Eve's personal assignment. It is what human beings are for. Every later stage of God's work aims at the same three things, and they remain what our own lives are measured against today.

Joy Realized Through a Completed Object

God's purpose in creating is often summarized in one word: joy. Joy is never produced alone; it arises when a subject sees his own nature reflected and returned by an object. God therefore made human beings as His substantial object partners, capable of returning His love consciously and freely, which is why we are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). When an individual perfects character, forms a God-centered family, and cares rightly for creation, God, husband, wife, and children come to stand in the four position foundation, and each of the four takes the three object purpose—relating fully to the other three. In that circulation, God experiences the joy He created for, and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD” (Habakkuk 2:14). The purpose of creation is not an abstract plan but this living structure of love.

What God's Original Ideal Looked Like

The purpose of creation is not an abstraction; Genesis describes what it was to look like in practice. A man and a woman were to reach maturity in unbroken heart with God, to become husband and wife and parents whose family was centred on God's love, and to exercise loving care over the created world. "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28) is the whole design stated in one sentence.

Three things follow about that original ideal. It was familial rather than institutional — the first unit of God's kingdom was a household, not a temple or a government. It was physical as well as spiritual — the body, marriage, work and the natural world were all part of it, not concessions to be outgrown. And it was to be reached through growth, which is why the first human beings were created immature, with a commandment to keep while they matured.

Nothing about that design was cancelled by the Fall. It was postponed. This is why God's work through history reads as restoration rather than replacement, and why the end of the Bible returns to a garden, a river, a tree and a marriage — the same picture with which it began.

Living the Principle

Consciously live each day as a participant in God's ideal. 1. Cultivate Character: Strive for individual perfection by centering your mind and body on God's love, cultivating intellect, emotion, and will to embody truth, beauty, and goodness. 2. Build True Families: Prioritize God-centered relationships in your family, practicing loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity as foundational expressions of true love. 3. Steward Creation: Exercise loving dominion over the natural world and all people, recognizing their inherent value and contributing to a harmonious environment. 4. Reflect and Rejoice: Regularly engage in actions that bring God joy, understanding that your fulfillment of the Three Great Blessings is the path to both God's and your ultimate happiness.

These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. .

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