Thou Shalt Not Make to Thee Other 'gods'

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.  Exodus 20:1 - 3

Thou shalt not make to thee other gods includes not loving self and the world above all things-

For that which one loves above all things is his god.

There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love to God, also love of the world and love of heaven.

He who loves himself loves his own [proprium]; and as a man's own [proprium] is nothing but evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates good, and thus hates God.

He who loves himself above all things sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own [proprium], and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when one is sunk in the body and in his own [proprium] he is in corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in thick darkness as to higher things; while he who is raised up by the Lord is in light.

He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be himself worshiped as a god.

From this it follows-

that he who loves himself above all things worships other gods.

The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the world; for there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's own [proprium]; therefore the world is loved because of one's own, and for the sake of one's own, because it is serviceable to it.

The love of self means especially the love of domineering over others from the mere delight in ruling and for the sake of eminence, and not from the delight in uses and for the sake of the public good; while the love of the world means especially the love of possessing goods in the world from the mere delight in possession and for the sake of riches, and not from the delight in uses from these and for the sake of the good therefrom.

These loves are both of them without limit, and rush on to infinity so far as opportunity is given.

(Apocalypse Explained 950:3)

Why There Can Be Only 'One God'

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

there is in all the world no nation possessing religion and sound reason that does not acknowledge a God, and that God is One. As a consequence of the Divine influx into the souls of men, treated of just above, there is in every man an internal dictate that there is a God and that He is One. And yet there are some who deny God, and some who acknowledge nature as god, and some who acknowledge more gods than one, and some who worship images as gods; which is possible because such have blocked up the interiors of their reason or understanding with worldly and corporeal things. thereby obliterating their first or childhood idea respecting God, and at the same time rejecting religion from their breasts and casting it behind their backs. Christians acknowledge One God; but in what manner is evident from their established [Athanasian] creed, which is as follows:

The Catholic faith is this: That we worship One God in trinity, and trinity in unity. There are three Divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet there are not three Gods, but there is One God. There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit, and their divinity is one, their glory equal, and their majesty coeternal. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. But like as we are compelled by Christian verity to confess each person singly to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords.

Such is the Christian faith respecting the unity of God. But that the trinity of God and the unity of God in that creed are inconsistent with each other....

The other nations in the world possessing a religion and sound reason agree in acknowledging that God is One; all the Mohammedans in their empires; the Africans in many kingdoms of that continent; the Asiatics in their many kingdoms; and finally the Jews to this day. Of the most ancient people in the golden age, such as had any religion worshiped One God, whom they called Jehovah.

The same is true of the ancient people in the succeeding age, until monarchical governments were established, when worldly and afterwards corporeal loves began to close up the higher regions of the understanding, which previously had been open, and had been like temples and sacred recesses for the worship of One God.

In order to reopen these and thus restore the worship of One God, the Lord God instituted a church among the posterity of Jacob, and made this the first of all the commandments of their religion:

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me (Exod. 20:3).

Moreover, the name Jehovah, which He at this time restored, signifies the supreme and Only Being, the Source of everything that is or exists in the universe. Jove, a name derived possibly from Jehovah, was worshiped as a supreme god by the ancient heathen; and many other gods who composed his court they also clothed with divinity; while in the following age wise men, like Plato and Aristotle, confessed that these were not gods, but were so many properties, qualities, and attributes of the One God, being called gods because there was something Divine in each of them.

All sound reason, even when it is not religious, sees that every composite thing would of itself fall to pieces unless it depended upon some one thing; as in the case of man, composed of so many members, viscera, and organs of sensation and motion, unless they all depended on one soul; or the body itself, unless it depended on one heart. The same is true of a kingdom unless it depends on one king; a household, unless on one master; and every office, of which there are many kinds in every kingdom, unless on one officer. What would an army avail against the enemy unless it had a leader having supreme power, and officers subordinate to him, each of them having his proper command over the soldiers? So would it be with the church if it did not acknowledge One God, or with the angelic heaven, which is like a head to the church on earth, in both of which the Lord is the very soul. This is why heaven and the church are called His body; and when these do not acknowledge One God they are like a dead body, which being useless is carried away and buried.

(True Christian Religion 9, 10)

There is a God and He is One

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There is a universal influx from God into the souls of men of the truth that-
There is a God, and that He is one.

That there is an influx from God into man is evident from the universal confession that-

all good that is in itself good, and that exists in man and is done by him, is from God; in like manner every thing of charity and every thing of faith

for we read:

A man can take nothing except it be given him from heaven  (John 3:27);

and Jesus said:

Without Me ye are unable to do anything  (John 15:5);

that is, anything that pertains to charity and faith.

This influx is into the souls of men because the soul is the inmost and highest part of man, and the influx from God enters into that, and descends therefrom into the things that are below, and vivifies them in accordance with reception.

The truths that are to constitute belief flow in, it is true, through the hearing, and are thus implanted in the mind, that is, below the soul. But by means of such truths man is simply made ready to receive the influx from God through the soul — such as this preparation is, such is the reception, and such the transformation of natural faith into spiritual faith.

There is such an influx from God into the souls of men of the truth that God is one, because everything Divine, regarded most generally as well as most particularly, is God. And as the entire Divine coheres as one, it cannot fail to inspire in man the idea of One God; and this idea is strengthened daily as man is elevated by God into the light of heaven. For the angels in their light cannot force themselves to utter the word "gods." Even their speech closes at the end of every sentence in a oneness of cadence; and there is no other cause of this than the influx into their souls of the truth that God is One.

In spite of this influx into the souls of men of the truth that God is One, there are many who think that the Divinity of God is divided into several possessing the same essence; and the reason of this is that when the influx descends it falls into forms not correspondent, and influx is varied by the form that receives it, as takes place in all the subjects of the three kingdoms of nature. It is the same God who vivifies man and who vivifies every beast; but the recipient form is what causes the beast to be a beast and man to be a man. The same is true of man when he induces on his mind the form of a beast. There is the same influx from the sun into every kind of tree, but the influx differs in accordance with the form of each; that which flows into the vine is the same as that which flows into the thorn; but if a thorn were to be engrafted upon a vine the influx would be inverted and go forth in accordance with the form of the thorn.

For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.  Hebrews 6:7, 8

The same is true of the subjects of the mineral kingdom; the same light flows into limestone and into the diamond; but in the diamond it is transmitted, while in the limestone it is quenched.

In human minds these differences are in accordance with the forms of the mind, which become inwardly spiritual in accordance with faith in God, together with life from God, such forms being made translucent and angelic by a faith in one God, and on the contrary, made dark and bestial by a faith in more than one God, which differs but little from a faith in no God.

(True Christian Religion 8)