Divine Trinity (pt 12)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 12)

The faith of every church is like the seed from which all its dogmas spring.

It may be compared to the seed of a tree, out of which grows everything belonging to the tree, even to its fruit; and also to the seed of man, from which offspring and families are begotten in successive series. Therefore as soon as its leading tenet, which from its predominance is called saving, is known, the character of a church is known.

This may be illustrated by the following example-

Suppose the faith to be that nature is the creator of the universe; it will follow from this faith that the universe is called God, that nature is its essence, that the ether is the supreme Deity whom the ancients called Jove, that the air is the goddess they called Juno and made the wife of Jove; that the ocean is a god below these, which after the manner of the ancients may be called Neptune; and as the Divinity of nature reaches to the earth's very center, there is a god there also, who, as with the ancients, may be called Pluto; that the sun is the court of all the gods, where they meet whenever Jupiter calls a council; moreover, that fire is life from God; and thus the birds fly in God, the beasts walk in God, and the fishes swim in God. It follows also that thoughts are merely modifications of the ether, as the words flowing from them are modulations of air; and that love's affections are occasional changes of state caused by the influx into them of the sun's rays; and along with these notions, that the life after death, together with heaven and hell, is a fable concocted by the clergy for the purpose of acquiring honors and wealth, which, although a fable, is useful, and not to be ridiculed openly, since it serves the public interest by keeping simple minds in the bonds of obedience to magistrates; but those that are inveigled by religion are in fact often devoted to abstractions, their thoughts are fantasies, their actions ludicrous, and they themselves drudges of the priests, believing in what they see not, and seeing what transcends the sphere of their minds.

The belief that nature is the creator of the universe includes these consequences, and many more like them, and they proceed from that belief when it is laid open. They are presented here to show that-

within the faith of the present church, which in its internal form is a faith in three Gods and in its external form a faith in one, there are swarms of falsities

and that as many falsities can be drawn out of it as there are little spiders in the egg-sac of a single spider. Who that has a mind truly rational does not see this by light from the Lord; and how can any other mind see it so long as the door to that faith and its offshoots is shut and bolted by the decree that it is unlawful for reason to look into its mysteries?

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 178)

Divine Trinity (pt 11)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 11)

From the Nicene Trinity and the Athanasian Trinity together a faith arose by which the whole Christian church has been perverted.

That both the Nicene and Athanasian trinities are a trinity of Gods can be seen from the creeds above quoted (pt 7). From these the faith of the present church has arisen, which is a faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in God the Father that He will impute the righteousness of His Son the Savior and ascribe it to man, in God the Son that He will intercede and covenant, and in the Holy Spirit that He will in reality inscribe upon man the Son's imputed righteousness, and confirm it with a seal, by justifying, sanctifying, and regenerating him.

This is the faith of the present day; and it is sufficient evidence that a trinity of God[s] is what is acknowledged and worshiped.

From the faith of any church flow forth not only all its worship but also all its dogmas; thus it may be said that such as its faith is such is its doctrine. From this it follows that inasmuch as the faith of the present church is a faith in three Gods, it has perverted all things belonging to the church-

for faith is the first principle and doctrinals are derivatives; and derivatives derive their essence from the first principle.

If anyone will put these doctrinals one by one under examination, as the doctrine of God, of the person of Christ, of charity, repentance, regeneration, freewill, election, and the use of the sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper, he will see plainly that there is a trinity of God[s] within each one; and even if it does not actually appear within each, they all flow from it as from their fountain. But as such an examination cannot here be made (and yet in order that man's eyes may be opened it is well worth making), an Appendix shall be added to this work in which this will be shown. See the 'Coronis' Appendix to True Christian Religion.

• The faith of the church respecting God is like the soul in the body, and doctrinals are like the members of the body.

Or again

• Faith in God is like a queen, and dogmas like the officers of her court; and as these all hang upon the word of the queen, so do dogmas upon the utterance of faith.

Solely from the faith of a church it can be seen how the Word is understood in that church; for a faith inwardly adapts and draws to itself, as if by cords, whatever things it can.

If the faith is false it plays the harlot with every truth therein, and perverts and falsifies it, and in the spiritual things makes man insane.

But if the faith is true the whole Word sustains it; and the God of the Word, who is the Lord God the Savior, pours light upon it and breathes upon it His Divine assent and makes man wise.

It will also be seen in the Appendix that the faith of the present day (which in its inward form is a faith in three Gods, but in its outward form a faith in one God) has quenched the light in the Word and taken away the Lord from the church, and has thus changed its morning into night. This was done by heresies before the council of Nice, and further by heresies arising from that council and after it. But what confidence is to be placed in councils which:

Enter not through the door into the sheepfold but climb up some other way (according to the Lord's words in John 10:1, 9)?

Their deliberation is not unlike the walking of a blind man in the daytime or of a man not blind at night, neither of whom sees a ditch until he has tumbled into it. What confidence, for example, can be placed in councils that established the vicarship of the pope, the canonization of the dead, the invocation of the dead as deities, the worship of their images, the granting of indulgences, the division of the Eucharist, and other things? Or what confidence is to be placed in a council that established the unspeakable doctrine of predestination, and hung it up before its church buildings as the palladium of religion?

But, my friend, go to the God of the Word, and thus to the Word itself, and so enter through the door into the sheepfold, that is, into the church, and you will be enlightened; and then as from a mountain top you will see for yourself the goings and wanderings, not only of the many but your own also previously in the gloomy forest below.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 177)

Divine Trinity (pt 10)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 10)

That the Apostolic church had not the least knowledge of a trinity of persons, or of three persons from eternity, can be clearly seen from the creed of that church which is called the Apostles' Creed, in which are these words -

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary;" and "I believe in the Holy Ghost."

Here no mention is made of a Son born from eternity, but only of a Son conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary; for they knew from the apostles:

• That Jesus Christ was the true God (1 John 5:20)

• And that in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9);

• And that the apostles preached faith in Him (Acts 20:21);

• And that to Him was given all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).

What confidence is to be had in councils when they do not go directly to the God of the church? Is not the church the Lord's body, and He its head? What is a body without a head? And what sort of a body is that upon which three heads have been put, under the auspices of which men hold consultations and pass decrees? Does not enlightenment (which is spiritual when it is from the Lord alone, who is the God of heaven and the church, and also the God of the Word) then become more and more natural and at length sensual? And then not a single genuine theological truth in its internal form is perceived without being instantly cast out of the thought of the rational understanding, and like chaff from a winnowing machine blown into the air. In this state fallacies steal into the mind instead of truths, and darkness instead of rays of light; and men stand as if in a cave with spectacles on the nose and torch in hand, shutting their eyes to spiritual truths, which are in the light of heaven, and opening them to sensual truths belonging to the fatuous light of the bodily senses. And it is the same afterwards when the Word is read; the mind is then asleep to truths and awake to falsities, and becomes like the beast described as rising up out of the sea:

• With a mouth like that of a lion, a body like that of a leopard, and feet like those of a bear (Apoc. 13:2).

It is said in heaven that when the Nicene Council had finished its work, that had come to pass which the Lord foretold to His disciples:

• The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matt. 24:29);

and in fact the Apostolic church was like a new star appearing in the starry heaven.  But the church after the two Nicene councils became finally like the same star darkened and lost to view, as has sometimes happened, according to the observation of astronomers, in the natural world. We read in the Word that:

• Jehovah God dwells in light unapproachable (1 Tim. 6:16).

Who, then, can approach Him, unless He take up His abode in light that is approachable, that is, unless He come down and assume a Human, and in it become the light of the world (John 1:9; 12:46)? Anyone can see that to get near to Jehovah the Father in His own light is as impossible as to take the wings of the morning and fly on them to the sun, or to feed upon the sun's rays instead of material food, or as for a bird to fly in the ether, or a stag to run on air.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 175 - 176)