God is formless and invisible. He is beyond any human concept, hidden and inscrutable: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”
In the monotheistic religions, the prohibition of images is a statement about the utter transcendence of God, for to represent God by an idol is to reduce the infinite to finitude. Eastern religions likewise assert that no words or intellectual concepts can properly convey the nature of Ultimate Reality.
How can finite human knowledge comprehend the supreme Knower and source of mind itself?
Father Moon affirms that God is formless, invisible and beyond human knowledge, but then adds something more: God is not content to remain that way. The invisible God’s ultimate purpose is to manifest Himself in the visible form of Man.
Accordingly, God does not leave us forever in Ignorance, but in the Last Days He reveals all matters hidden in His heart. What is more, we will advance to the point where we can fully embody God’s nature and become His representatives on earth.
No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision; He is above all comprehension, Yet is acquainted with all things. Qur’an 6.103
The way that can be spoken of Is not the eternal Way; The name that can be named Is not the eternal name. The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth; The named was the mother of the myriad creatures. Hence, always rid yourself of desire in order to observe its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations. These two are the same But diverge in name as they issue forth. Being the same they are called mysteries, Mystery upon mystery— The gateway of the manifold secrets. Tao Te Ching 1 (Taoism)
The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless Self has neither caste nor race, Neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet. Sages say this Self is infinite in the great And in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life. Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.6 (Hinduism)
The Supreme Soul is neither long nor short, nor a circle nor a triangle, nor a quadrilateral nor a sphere. He is neither black nor blue nor red nor yellow nor white. He is neither a pleasant smell nor an unpleasant smell. He is neither pungent nor bitter nor astringent nor sour nor sweet. He is neither hard nor soft, neither heavy nor light, neither cold nor hot, neither rough nor smooth. He is bodiless. He is not subject to birth. He is free from attachment. He is neither female nor male nor neuter. He is immaculate knowledge and intuition. There exists no simile to comprehend him. He is formless existence. He is what baffles all terminology. There is no word to comprehend him. He is neither sound nor form nor odor nor taste nor touch. Only so much I say. Acarangasutra 5.126-40 (Jainism)
Here, O Shariputra, form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form. The same is true of feel- ings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness. Heart Sutra (Buddhism)
Truly thou art a God who hidest thyself. Isaiah 45.15
Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Job 11.7-9
The Intelligence which reveals all—by what shall it be revealed? By whom shall the Knower be known? The Self is described as “not this, not that” (neti, neti). It is incomprehensible, for it cannot be comprehended; undecaying, for it never decays; unattached, for it never attaches itself; unbound, for it is never bound. By whom, O my beloved, shall the Knower be known? Bhrihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.15 (Hinduism)
Who sees me by form, Who seeks me in sound, Perverted are his footsteps upon the Way; For he cannot perceive the Tathagata. Diamond Sutra 26 (Buddhism)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Isaiah 55.8
Invent not similitudes for God; for God knows, and you know not.
Qur’an 16.74
Moses said, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” And [the Lord] said, “I will make all my good- ness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33.18-23
Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. Deuteronomy 4.15-18
In the beginning was God, Today is God Tomorrow will be God. Who can make an image of God? He has no body. He is as a word which comes out of your mouth. That word! It is no more, It is past, and still it lives! So is God. Pygmy Hymn (African Traditional Religions)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
You cannot see God even in the spirit world. Can you see energy? God is the original source of energy. Therefore, even in the spirit world, He cannot be seen. (105:193, October 21, 1979)
God is formless. He is infinitely greater than any concept of bigness and infinitesimally smaller than any concept of smallness. (35:157, October 13, 1970)
What is the shape of love? If love had a certain shape, like a square, then it could only accommodate a square-shaped person. But because love is like the air, without shape or form, it can fill any shape or form.
Love can be sometimes round, sometimes thin. It can be stretched like an elastic thread, even thousands of miles. Yet love never complains, “I’m already too stretched. Don’t pull me anymore!”
Love always has the attitude, “Pull me more. Stretch me further.” That is the opposite of “Too much! Stop it!” Even if the love thread breaks, God would want to keep unwinding it from its spool. That love string will pull God and stretch Him out. Even if God felt pain at this, His “Ouch!” would be a joyful one.
(167:115, July 1, 1987)
How heavy do you think God is? How many kilograms does He weigh? A hundred billion tons? Were God that heavy, He would have a serious problem trying to move around. Rather, it is ideal that God is invisible.
Even if you carried Him inside your wallet, you would not feel any weight. Being invisible, God can pass through the eye of even the smallest needle. He can move around at will. Being infinitely large yet also infinitely small, He can freely move about anywhere in the universe. (136:106)
You should be grateful that God is invisible. If you could see Him [as He commented on your every action and every word], you would have a nervous breakdown and would be dead within an hour. This is no laughing matter. I tell you this from my own poignant experience. (38:244)
God is intelligent. He thought, “The most convenient way to exercise my sovereignty is to be invisible. Then I can do as I wish without being seen or caught by anyone.” Despite not having a body, “it is enough,” He considered, that I can fulfill my duty as the Lord.” Suppose God had a body.
If He said to the cosmos, whose span is 21 billion light years, “Come to my bosom and rest inside of Me,” could God do His duty? Imagine the vast distances!
How long would it take God’s mind to reach His body? God could foresee that He would be miserable. Having conceived all possibilities, God decided to take dominion as a formless, invisible existence. Being invisible, God can move about at His convenience.
Moreover, nobody feels troubled when God travels about the physical world. Even if God were to step on your body, you would not notice. How convenient! It is simple logic that God chose to be an invisible God because that resulted in the most convenience.
Suppose you could see God with your physical eyes—see Him as He commented on your every move and every word, and intervened in everything you did. Do you think you could survive even one day without having a nervous breakdown?
Countless particles are passing through your body at this moment, yet you cannot see or feel them. How, then, could you ever see the work of the invisible God as He passes right through you? Rather foolishly saying that you would believe in God if only He showed Himself to you, you should rather be grateful that He is invisible. (138:168, January 21, 1986)
If God, the great Lord of heaven and earth, were visible to human eyes, people would fight each other to possess God. There would be no way to stop the battle…
If God were visible, America and the Soviet Union would fight over Him, each claiming that God was theirs. Who could stop the fighting? The omniscient God stays invisible lest such fights break out. To wish that God were visible is foolish. He shouldn't be. (41:260)
God alone is absolute, unchanging, and eternal. Do you think it is easy for the eternal God to relate to fallen human beings? Do people have any idea how to relate to Him? (92:299, April 24, 1977)
God’s thoughts, as He leads His Providence, are different from our thoughts, as we encounter the Providence. This is a problem. How can we, who are immersed in the satanic world, find our way to God’s Providence? We certainly cannot find the way to fulfill God’s purposes by our own concepts. Rather, we must understand the world God originally intended and then transform [ourselves and our world] into God’s world. (161:109, January 11, 1987)
God is formless and invisible. His ideal of creation is to manifest Himself into beings with form. In fulfilling this purpose, God would not rest content to be a being visible only to the spirit world. He would want to be a Being with the substance of the visible world as well. (298:106, January 1, 1999)
The invisible and formless God is the origin of energy. Yet, to have complete dominion over the physical world, God needs an instrument that possesses physical form.
If Adam had reached perfection without falling, he would have entered the spirit world as fully the image of God. The spirit of Adam would have become one with the invisible God, and God would have taken on the image of Adam. Had that come to pass, when Adam laughed, God would be laughing, and the entire universe would be laughing as well.
The process of creation is the projection of the invisible God into physical forms. It is like a magnet, which needs a south pole as well as a north pole in order to function. There are two aspects of God, external and internal. Thus, God’s idea was for the invisible God and the visible God—Adam—to be in harmony.
Their give-and take would create a circuit. Through their give and take of love, the internal would become external and the external would become internal, back and forth, in circular motion. Thus, the internal God and the external God would be united as one. (105:193-94, October 21, 1979)
END OF BOOK CHAPTER