The Lord Fully Glorified His Human

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Jesus cried with a great voice, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.  He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This He saith of the spirit which they that believe on Him were to receive; the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified   (John 7:37-39).

It is clear from this that the Holy Spirit is Divine truth, proceeding from the Lord, which flows in with man, both immediately from the Lord Himself and mediately through angels and spirits; for the Lord says first, that he who believes on Him, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water, and then that He spake this of the spirit which they were to receive; for "water" in the spiritual sense, signifies truth, and "rivers of living water," Divine truth from the Lord in abundance; the like is therefore meant by "the spirit which they were to receive." ...

And as Divine truth proceeds from the glorified Human of the Lord and not immediately from the Divine Itself, for this was glorified in Itself from eternity, so it is here said, the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

That to "glorify" is to make Divine -The Lord fully glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine by His last temptation and victory on the cross

It is greatly wondered at in heaven that the man of the church does not know that the Holy Spirit, which is Divine truth, proceeds from the Lord's Human, and not immediately from His Divine, when yet the doctrine received in the whole Christian world teaches that:

As is the Father so also is the Son, uncreate, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, God, Lord; neither of them first or last, nor greatest or least. Christ is God and man: God from the nature of the Father, and man from the nature of the mother; but although He is God and man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; He is one, but not by changing the Divine into the Human but the Divine took the Human to Itself. He is altogether one, not by a mingling of two natures, but He is a single person, because as body and soul are one man, so God and man is one Christ. (This from the Creed of Athanasius).

Now as the Divine and the Human of the Lord are not two, but a single person, and are united as soul and body, it may be known that the Divine which is called the Holy Spirit goes out and proceeds from His Divine through the Human, thus from the Divine Human - for nothing whatever can go forth from the body except from the soul through the body, since all the life of the body is from its soul.

And since "As is the Father so is the Son, uncreate, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, God and Lord, and neither of them is first or last, nor greatest nor least," it follows that -

The proceeding Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Divine Itself of the Lord through His Human, and not from another Divine that is called the Father;

for the Lord teaches that the Father and He are one, and that the Father is in Him and He in the Father.  But the reason why most of those in the Christian world think otherwise in their hearts, and thence believe otherwise, is, the angels said, because they think of the Lord's Human as separate from His Divine, although this is contrary to the doctrine which teaches that -

the Divine and the Human of the Lord are not two persons, but a single person, united as soul and body.

That this should be the doctrine of the whole Christian world was provided by the Lord, because it is the essential of the church, and the essential of the salvation of all. But they have divided the Divine and the Human of the Lord into two natures, and have said that the Lord is God from the nature of the Father, and man from the nature of the mother, because they do not know that when the Lord fully glorified His Human He put off the human from the mother, and put on a Human from the Father....

(Apocalypse Explained 183:10, 11)

The Confession of the Faith of the Church in General

Selections from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Faith in the understanding or doctrine, which is the first thing of regeneration

The complex the truth of doctrine by which the good of life can be attained

The church which begins from faith would cease to be a church unless this Divine truth remained in it - that the Lord's Human is Divine, for this is the supreme or inmost truth of the church.

This supreme or inmost truth, that the Lord's Human is Divine, is denied by those in the church who are in faith alone; and yet because they know from the Word that in the Lord there is the Divine, and do not apprehend how the Human can be Divine, they therefore attribute both to the Lord, making a distinction between His Divine nature and His Human nature.

Those however who are in a life of faith, or in charity, adore the Lord as their God and Savior; and when in adoration, they think of the Lord's Divine without separating it from the Human, and thus at heart acknowledge all in the Lord to be Divine. But when they think from doctrine, because they likewise cannot comprehend how the Human can be Divine, they speak according to their doctrine.
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That acknowledgment and adoration of the Lord's Divine Human is the life of religion...

Men are of such a nature as to desire to worship that of which they can have some perception and thought, and sensuous men even that which they can perceive by some sense, nor are they willing to worship unless the Divine is therein. This is common to the human race.

For this reason Gentiles worship idols in which they believe there is the Divine, and others worship men after their death whom they believe to be either gods or saints. For nothing can be called forth in man unless there is something to affect his senses.

Those who say that they acknowledge a Supreme Being, of whom they have no idea of perception, for the most part acknowledge no God, but nature instead, because they comprehend this. Very many of the learned among Christians are such, and this also because they do not believe the Human of the Lord to be Divine.

Lest therefore men who have removed themselves so far from the Divine, and have become so far corporeal, should worship wood and stones; and lest they should worship some man after his death, and thus under him some devil, and not God Himself, because they could not in any way perceive Him, and thus everything of the church should perish, and with the church the human race, the Divine Itself willed to assume the Human and to make it Divine. Let the learned take heed therefore, lest they think of the Lord's Human and do not at the same time believe it to be Divine, for in so doing they make for themselves a stumbling block, and at last believe nothing.

(Arcana Coelestia 4731; 4733)

Those Who Climb Up Some Other Way

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Spurious faith is all faith that departs from the true faith, which is the one only faith, and this is the faith that is held by those who climb up some other way, and regard the Lord not as God but as a mere man.

That spurious faith is all faith that departs from the true faith, which is the one only faith, is self evident; for if the one only faith is the truth, it follows that what departs from it is not truth.

Every good and truth of the church is propagated by the marriage of the Lord and the church; thus everything that is essentially charity and that is essentially faith is from that marriage; and on the other hand, whatever of charity and faith is not from that marriage, is not from a legitimate but an illegitimate bed, thus from a polygamic bed or marriage, or from adultery.

All faith that acknowledges the Lord but adopts the falsities of heresy is from a polygamic bed, and the faith that acknowledges three Lords of one church is from adultery. For this may be likened to a harlot or a woman married to one man and spending her nights with two others, calling each one her husband while sleeping with him. Therefore such faith is called spurious; and in many places the Lord calls those holding such a faith "adulterers," and they are also meant by "thieves and robbers" in John:

Verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber; I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved  (10:1, 9).

Entering into the sheepfold is entering into the church, and also into heaven. It is entering also into heaven because heaven and the church make one, and nothing makes heaven except the church that is in it; consequently as the Lord is the bridegroom and husband of the church, so is He also the bridegroom and husband of heaven.

It may be inquired into and may be known whether faith is a legitimate or a spurious offspring by the three indications ... namely-

Acknowledgment of the Lord as the Son of God

Acknowledgment of Him as the God of heaven and earth

Acknowledgment that He is one with the Father.

Therefore, so far as any faith departs from these its essentials, it is spurious.

Faith is both spurious and adulterous with those who regard the Lord not as God but merely as a man. The truth of this is very evident from the two abominable heresies, Arianism and Socinianism, which have been anathematized in and excommunicated from the Christian church, and this because they deny the Lord's Divinity, and climb up some other way. But I fear that those abominations lie concealed at this day in the general spirit of the men of the church.

It is remarkable that the more anyone deems himself to be superior to others in learning and judgment, the more prone he is to seize upon and appropriate to himself the idea that the Lord is a man and not God, and that because He is a man He cannot be God; and whoever appropriates to himself these ideas, introduces himself into companionship with Arians and Socinians, who in the spiritual world are in hell.

Such is the general spirit of the men of the church at the present day, because with every man there is an associate spirit; for without this man would be unable to think analytically, rationally, and spiritually, and thus would not be a man but a brute. Moreover, every man attaches to himself a spirit in harmony with the affection of his own will and consequent perception of his understanding.

To the man who introduces himself into good affections by means of truths from the Word and a life according to them, an angel from heaven is adjoined; while he who introduces himself into evil affections by the confirmation of falsities and a wicked life adjoins himself to a spirit from hell, and when this is done the man enters more and more, as it were, into fraternity with satans, and confirms himself more and more in falsities contrary to the truths in the Word, and in Arian and Socinian abominations against the Lord.

This is because no satan can bear to hear any truth from the Word or to hear Jesus named; and if they hear these they become like furies, and run about and blaspheme; and then if light from heaven flows in they throw themselves headlong into caverns and into their own thick darkness, in which there is light to them, as there is to owls in the dark, or to cats in cellars watching for mice. Such do all those become after death, who in heart and faith deny the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word. Their internal man is of this nature, however much the external may play the mimic and feign to be Christian. That this is true I know, because I have seen and heard it.

Of all who honor the Lord as the Redeemer and Savior with the mouth and lips only, while in heart and spirit they regard Him as a mere man, it may be said, when they are speaking of these things and teaching them, that their cheeks are like a bag of honey, and their heart like a bag of gall; their words are like cakes of sugar, while their thoughts are like emulsions of aconite; they are also like rolls of pastry containing snakes. If such persons are priests, they are like pirates on the sea who hoist the flag of a peaceful nation, but when a ship sailing near hails them as friends, they raise a piratical flag in place of the other, seize the ship, and carry away those on board into captivity. They are also like serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that approach like angels of light, carrying in their hands apples from that tree painted with golden colors, as if plucked from the tree of life; and they offer them, saying:

God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5).

And when these have eaten, they follow the serpent into the lower world, and there they dwell together. Round about that world are the satans who have eaten of the apples of Arius and Socinus. Such as these are meant also by the man,

Who came to the marriage without a wedding garment, and was cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:11-13);

"the wedding garment" meaning faith in the Lord as the Son of God, the God of heaven and earth, and one with the Father. Those who honor the Lord with the mouth and lips only, but in heart and spirit regard Him as a mere man, if they declare their thoughts and persuade others, are spiritual murderers, and the worst of them are spiritual cannibals -

For a man's life is from love to the Lord and faith in Him; and if this essential element of faith and love — that the Lord is God-Man and Man-God — is taken away, man's life becomes death; thus in this way man is killed and devoured as a kid by a wolf.

(True Christian Religion  380)