Spiritual background for EXODUS 40    previous  -  text  -  BM Home  -  Full Page

THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY AND FAITH

AC 10815. There is one God, who is the Creator of the universe and the Preserver of the universe, thus who is the God of heaven and the God of earth.

AC 10816. There are two things which make the life of heaven with man: the truth of faith, and the good of love. Man has this life from God, and nothing whatever of it from man; and therefore the chief thing of the church is to acknowledge God, to believe in God, and to love Him.

AC 10817. Those who have been born within the church ought to acknowledge the Lord, His Divine and His Human, and to believe in Him and love Him, because all salvation is of the Lord. This the Lord teaches in John:--

He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life; but be that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the anger of God abideth with him (John 3:36).

This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone who seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, may have eternal life; and I will raise him up In the last day (John 6:40).

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life; be that believeth in Me, though he die, shall live; but everyone that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die (John 11:25, 26).

AC 10818. Wherefore those who within the church do not acknowledge the Lord and His Divine, cannot be conjoined with God, and thus cannot have any lot with the angels in heaven, for no one can be conjoined with God except by the Lord and in the Lord. That no one can be conjoined with God except by the Lord, the Lord teaches in these passages:--

No man hath ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John 1:18).

Ye have never heard the voice of the Father, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

No one knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27).

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father but by Me (John 14:6).

That no one can be conjoined with God except in the Lord, the Lord also teaches in John:--

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, unless ye abide in Me; for without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4, 5).

That no one can be conjoined with God except in the Lord, because the Father is in Him, and They are one, as also He teaches John:--

He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me; and ye have known My Father, and from henceforth ye have known Him; He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father: Philip, believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 12:45; 14:7-11).

The Father and I are one; that ye may know, and believe, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 10:30, 38).

AC 10819. As the Father is in the Lord, and the Father and the Lord are one, and as He must be believed in, and whoso believeth in Him hath eternal life, it is evident that the Lord is God. That the Lord is God is taught everywhere in the Word, as in these passages:--

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:1, 3, 14).

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called God, Hero, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).

A virgin shall conceive, and bring forth, and His name shall be called God with us (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23).

Behold the days come when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as king, and shall prosper; and this is His name whereby they shall call Him, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16).

AC 10820. All those who are of the church, and are in light from heaven, see the Divine in the Lord, and this in His Human. But those who are not in light from heaven see nothing but the Human in the Lord, when yet the Human and the Divine in Him are so united that they are one, as the Lord taught in another passage in John:--

Father, all things that are Mine are Thine, and all things that are Thine are Mine (John 17:10).

AC 10821. Those who in regard to the Divinity have an idea of three Persons, cannot have an idea of one God. If they say one with the mouth, they nevertheless think of three. But those who in regard to the Divinity have an idea of three in one Person, can have an idea of one God, and can say "one God," and also think "one God."

AC 10822. Men have the idea of three in one Person when they think that the Father is in the Lord, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Lord; and then the Trine in the Lord is the Divine Itself which is called the Father, the Divine Human which is called the Son, and the proceeding Divine which is called the Holy Spirit.

AC 10823. Every man has from his father his being of life, which is called his soul. The derivative manifestation (exsistere) of life is that which is called the body. Consequently the body is the likeness of its soul, because by means of it the soul pursues its life at its pleasure. From this it is that men are born into the likeness of their fathers, and that families are distinguished from each other. And from this it is evident what was the nature of the Lord‘s body or Human, namely, that it was like the Divine Itself, which was the Being of His life, or the Soul from the Father; and He therefore said:--

He that seeth Me seeth the Father (John 14:9).

AC 10824. That the Divine and the Human of the Lord are one Person, is also in accordance with the faith received in the whole Christian world, which is to this effect: "Although Christ is God and Man, nevertheless He is not two, but one Christ. Yea, He is altogether one and a single Person; for as the body and soul are one man, so also God and Man are one Christ." This is from the Athanasian Creed.

AC 10825. That the Lord was conceived of Jehovah the Father and thus was God from conception, is known in the church, and also that He rose again with His whole body, for He left nothing in the sepulchre. Of this He also afterward confirmed His disciples, saying,

"Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; feel Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have" (Luke 24:39).

And although He was a man in respect to the flesh and bones, He nevertheless entered in through closed doors; and after He had manifested Himself He again became invisible (John 20:19, 26; Luke 24:31). It is different with every man, for a man rises again only as to the spirit, and not as to the body; and therefore when He said that He is not a spirit, He said that He is not like any other man. From this it is now evident that in the Lord the Human also is Divine.

AC 10826. Those who make the Human of the Lord like the human of any other man, do not think about His conception from the Divine Itself, nor about His resurrection with the whole body, nor about Him as seen when He was transfigured, in that His face shone as the sun. Neither do they know and apprehend that the body of everyone is a likeness or effigy of his soul, nor that the Lord is omnipresent even in respect to the Human, for from this is the belief in His omnipresence in the Holy Supper. Omnipresence is Divine (Matt. 28:20).

AC 10827. As all the Divine is in the Lord, He therefore has all power in the heavens and on earth’ as also He Himself says in these passages:--

The Father hath given to the Son power over all flesh (John 17:2).

All things have been delivered unto Me by the Father (Matt. 11:27).

All power hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).

AC 10828. The Lord came into the world in order to save the human race, which otherwise would have perished in eternal death; and He saved it by this: that He subjugated the hells which were infesting every man that came into the world and that went out of the world; and at the same time by this: that He glorified His Human, for in this way He can hold the hells in subjection to eternity. The subjugation of the hells and the simultaneous glorification of His Human, were effected by means of temptations admitted into His Human, and by continual victories then. His passion on the cross was the last temptation and the full victory. That the Lord subjugated the hells, He Himself teaches in the following passages:--

Jesus said, Now is My soul troubled, Father, rescue Me from this hour; but for this cause came I into the world. Father, glorify Thy name. There came forth a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. Then Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out (John 12:27, 28, 31).

Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Who is this that cometh from Edom, marching in the multitude of his strength, great to save? Mine own arm performed salvation for Me; therefore He became their Saviour (Isa. 63:1, 5, 8; 59:16-21).

That He glorified His Human, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and the full victory through which He was glorified, He also teaches in these passages:--

After Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now hath the Son of man been glorified, and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him (John 13:31, 32).

Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:1, 5).

Now is My soul troubled, Father, glorify Thy name; and there came forth a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again (John 12:27, 28).

Ought not the Christ to suffer this, and to enter into His glory? (Luke 24:26).

"To glorify" denotes to make Divine. From this it is now evident that unless the Lord had come into the world, and had become a Man, and had in this manner freed from hell all those who believe in Him and love Him, no mortal could have been saved. This is meant by its being said that without the Lord there is no salvation.

AC 10829. To love the Lord is to live according to His commandments. That this is to love the Lord, He Himself teaches in John:--

If ye love Me, keep My commandments He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. If a man love Me, he will keep My word; but he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My woe (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24).

And that those are saved who receive the Lord, and believe in Him; but not those who are in evils and the derivative falsities, because these latter do not receive Him and believe in Him, He teaches in John:--

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be sons of God, to them that believe in His name; who were born, not from bloods, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but from God (John 1:12, 13);

"to be born from bloods, from the will of the flesh, and from the will of man," denotes to be in the evils of the love of self and of the world, and in the derivative falsities. "To be born from God" denotes to be regenerated.

AC 10830. When the Lord had fully glorified His Human, He then put off the human from the mother, and put on the Human from the Father; and therefore He was then no longer the son of Mary, but the Son of God, from Whom He came forth

AC 10831. That there is a trine in the Lord, namely, the Divine Itself, the Divine Human, and the proceeding Divine, is a secret from heaven, and is for those who will be in the holy Jerusalem.

CONTINUATION ABOUT THE SIXTH EARTH IN THE STARRY HEAVEN

AC 10833. I afterward questioned those spirits about various things in the earth from which they were; and first about their Divine worship. To this they replied that the nations together with their families assemble every thirtieth day at one place, and hear preachings, and that from a pulpit raised somewhat above the ground the preacher then teaches them truths Divine which lead to the good of life. They were asked from what source they have a knowledge of truths Divine. They said that it is from revelation; and with regard to revelation they stated that it takes place in the morning, in a state midway between sleep and waking, when they are in interior light not yet interrupted by the senses of the body, and by worldly things; and that they then hear angels of heaven speaking about truths Divine and a life according to them; and that when they become awake an angel appears to them at the bedside in a white garment, who then suddenly disappears from their eyes, and from this they know that the things which they have heard are from heaven. In this way a vision of Divine origin is distinguished from a vision that is not Divine; for no angel appears in a vision that is not Divine. They added that revelations are made to their preachers, and sometimes also to others, in a similar way.

AC 10834. With respect to the sun of that earth, which to us is a star, they said that it appears to the inhabitants of the size of the human head, of the color of Same; that their year is two hundred days long, and that a day is equal to nine hours of our time, which they were able to infer from the length of the days of our earth as perceived in me; and further that they have perpetual spring and summer, and consequently that the fields are in bloom, and the trees bear fruit, continuously. The reason of this is that their year is so short, being equal only to the time of seventy-five days of our year; and where the years are so short, there the cold does not linger in winter, nor the heat in summer, in consequence of which the ground is constantly in a state of spring.

AC 10835. In reply to a question about their houses, they said that they are low, of wood, with a flat roof, around which is a coping sloping downward; and that in the front part of the house dwell the husband and wife, the children in the part ad. joining, and the menservants and maidservants behind. With respect to their food, they said that they live on fruit and vegetables, and that they drink milk with water, and have the milk from cows which are woolly like sheep.

AC 10836. With regard to their life, they said that they go about quite naked, and that nakedness is no shame to them; also that their intercourse is with those who are within the families.

AC 10837. As regards betrothals and marriages among the inhabitants on that earth, they related that a daughter of marriageable age is kept at home, and is not allowed to go out until the day when she is to be married; and that she is then conducted to a certain wedding house, whither also have been brought a number of other young women who are marriageable; and they are there placed behind a partition that is raised as high as the middle part of their bodies, so that they are seen undressed merely in respect to the breast and face; and then the young men come thither to choose one for a wife; and when a young man sees one who is like himself, and to whom his mind draws him, he takes her by the hand; and if she then follows he leads her into a house that has been made ready, and she becomes his wife. For in that earth people see from the faces of others whether they agree in their minds, because there the face of everyone is the index of the mind, being quite free from pretence and deception. That all things may be done in a becoming manner, and without lasciviousness, an old man sits behind the virgin girls, and at their side an old woman, and they keep watch. There are a number of such places to which the young women are led, and there are also stated times when the young men may make their choice. For if they do not see a girl who suits them in one place, they go away to another; and if not at that time, they return at a subsequent time. They said further that a husband has only one wife, and never more, because this is contrary to Divine order