The Divine Trinity (pt 4)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 4)

These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of the one God, and they make one as soul, body, and operation make one in man.

In anyone thing there are both general and particular essentials, and these together make one essence.

The general essentials of the one man are his soul, body, and operation. That these constitute one essence can be seen from this-

that one is from the other and for the sake of the other in an unbroken series

for man gets his beginning from the soul, which is the very essence of the semen; and the soul not only initiates, but also produces in their order all things that pertain to the body, and afterward all things that proceed from the soul and body together, which are called operations.

From this production, therefore, of one from the other, and the consequent ingrafting and conjunction, it can be seen that these three are of one essence, and therefore they are called three essentials.

Everyone acknowledges that these three essentials, namely, soul, body, and operation, both were and are in the Lord God the Savior. That His soul was from Jehovah the Father cannot be denied except by Antichrist;

for in the Word of both Testaments He is called the Son of Jehovah, the Son of the Most High God, the Only-begotten;

consequently the Divine of the Father, like the soul in man, is His first essential.

From this it follows that the Son whom Mary brought forth is the body to that Divine soul; for in the mother's womb nothing is furnished except the body that has been conceived and derived from the soul; this, therefore, is His second essential.

Operations constitute the third essential, since these proceed from soul and body together, and what proceeds is of the same essence as that which produces it.

That the three essentials, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the Lord are one, like soul, body, and operation in man, is clearly evident from the Lord's words, that the Father and He are one; that the Father is in Him and He in the Father; and in like manner He and the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is the Divine that goes forth out of the Lord from the Father, as fully shown above from the Word; therefore to show it again would be superfluous, and like loading a table with food after the appetite has been satisfied.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 166, 167)

The Divine Trinity (pt 3)

Selection from True Christian Religion  ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt 3)

But in what manner these passages are to be understood, whether as meaning that these are three Gods, who in essence and consequently in name are one God; or that they are three objects belonging to one subject, that is, merely qualities or attributes of one God which are so named; or in some other way, the reason left to itself is incapable of seeing. What then is to be done?

There is no other way than for man to go to the Lord God the Savior, and under His auspices read the Word; for He is the God of the Word; and man will then be enlightened and will see truths which reason also will acknowledge.

But on the other hand, if you do not approach the Lord, (though you read the Word a thousand times, and see therein the Divine trinity and the unity also), you will never understand otherwise than that there are three Divine persons, each one of whom singly is God, and thus that there are three Gods.

But because this is repugnant to the common perception of all men throughout the world, to escape reproaches men have invented the notion that although there are in truth three Gods, it is indispensable to faith that one God only, and not three, be named. Furthermore, lest they should be overwhelmed with censure it was determined that on this point especially the understanding should be imprisoned and held bound under obedience to faith; and that this should evermore be a sacred principle of Christian order in the Christian church

Such a paralytic birth resulted from their not reading the Word under the Lord's auspices; for everyone who does not read the Word under His auspices reads it under the auspices of his own intelligence, which is like an owl in such things as are in spiritual light, as all the essentials of the church are.

When one so reads in the Word what is said of the trinity, and from what he reads, thinks that although there are three Gods they are still one, the matter appears to him like a response from a tripod, which, because he does not understand it, he rolls about between his teeth; for if he should set it before his eyes it would become a riddle, which the more he tries to solve the more he involves himself in darkness, until finally he begins to think about it without understanding, which is like seeing without an eye.

In short, those who read the Word under the auspices of one's own intelligence, as is done by all who do not acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and therefore approach and worship Him alone, may be likened to children at play, who tie a bandage over their eyes and try to walk in a straight line, and even think that they are going straight ahead, when yet they turn step by step to one side and finally go in the opposite direction, and strike against a stone and fall.

Such are also like mariners sailing without a compass, who run their vessel on the rocks and perish. They are also like a man walking over a wide plain in a thick fog, who seeing a scorpion takes it for a bird, and attempting to seize and pick it up with his hand receives a deadly wound.

Such again are like a waterfowl or a hawk, which sees above the water a little of the back of a big fish, and darts down and fixes its beak in it, and is drawn under by the fish and drowned.

Again they are like one entering a labyrinth without a guide or a cord, and the farther he goes in the more he loses sight of the way out.

A man who reads the Word not under the Lord's auspices but under the auspices of his own intelligence, thinks himself a lynx and better sighted than Argus; and yet he inwardly sees not a shred of truth, but only what is false; and under self-persuasion this falsity seems to him like a polar star towards which he directs all the sails of his thought; and then he no more sees truths than a mole does, or if he sees them he bends them to favor his phantasies, and so perverts and falsifies the holy things of the Word.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 165)

The Divine Trinity (pt 2)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued Pt 2)

There it a Divine Trinity, which is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That there is a Divine trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is made clearly evident in the Word, as in the following passages:

The angel Gabriel said to Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

Here three are mentioned, the Most High, who is God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God:

When Jesus was baptized, Lo, the heavens were opened, and John saw the Holy Spirit descending as a dove and coming upon Him and lo, a voice out of heaven saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:16, 17; Mark 1:10, 11; John 1:32).

And still more plainly in these words of the Lord to His disciples:

Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19);

and still again in these words in John:

There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7).

Furthermore, the Lord prayed to His Father, and spoke of Him and with Him, and said that He would send the Holy Spirit, and He did send it.

Finally the apostles in their Epistles frequently mentioned the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

From all this it is clear that there is a Divine trinity, which is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But in what manner these passages are to be understood, whether as meaning that these are three Gods, who in essence and consequently in name are one God; or that they are three objects belonging to one subject, that is, merely qualities or attributes of one God which are so named; or in some other way, the reason left to itself is incapable of seeing. What then is to be done?

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 163)