Accommodation to Man of an Incomprehensible God to be made Comprehensible

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Conjunction with God the Father is not possible,
but only conjunction with the Lord, and through Him with God the Father.

This the Scripture teaches and reason sees.

The Scripture teaches that God the Father has never been seen or heard, and cannot be seen or heard; consequently that from Himself, as He is in His own Esse and Essence, He cannot operate at all in man. For the Lord says,

That no man hath seen God save He that is with the Father, He hath seen the Father (John 6:46).

Neither knoweth anyone the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27).

Ye have neither heard the voice of the Father at any time nor seen His Shape (John 5:37).

This is because He is in the firsts and the principles of all things, thus pre-eminently above every sphere of the human mind; for He is in the firsts and the principles of all things of wisdom and all things of love, with which man can have no conjunction whatever; consequently if He Himself should draw near to man, or man to Him, man would be consumed and would melt away like wood in the focus of a powerful sun-glass, or rather like an image thrown into the sun itself. Therefore it was said to Moses, who longed to see God,

That man could not see Him and live (Ex. 33:20).

But that there may be conjunction with God the Father through the Lord, is evident from the passages just quoted, that not the Father, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and who has seen the Father, has brought to view and revealed those things which are of God and from God; and also from the following:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

The glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given unto them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me (John 3:22, 23, 26).

Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. And then Philip wished to see the Father, and the Lord said to him, He that seeth Me seeth the Father; and if ye had known Me, ye would know My Father also (John 14:6, 7, 9).

Again:

He that beholdeth Me, beholdeth Him that sent Me (John 12:45).

He also said:

That He is the door, and that whosoever enters through Him is saved while he who climbeth up some other way is a thief and a robber (John 10:1-9).

He also says,

That he who abides not in Him, is cast forth and as a branch is withered, and cast into the fire (John 15:6).

This is because the Lord our Savior is Jehovah the Father Himself in human form; for Jehovah descended and became Man that He might be able to draw near to man, and man to Him, and conjunction might thus be effected, and through that conjunction man might have salvation and eternal life.

For when God became Man, and thus also became Man-God, being then accommodated to man He could draw near to him and be conjoined with him as God-Man and Man-God.

There are three things that follow in order; accommodation, application, and conjunction.
There must be accommodation before there is application.  There must be accommodation and application both together before there is conjunction.

• Accommodation on God's part was that He became Man
• Application on God's part is perpetual so far as man applies himself in return
• And so far as this is done, Conjunction is effected also.

These three follow each other and proceed in their order in each and all things, which become one and coexist.

(True Christian Religion 370)

The Divine Trinity (pt 7)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 7)

In the ideas of thought a Trinity of Divine Persons from eternity, or before the world was created, is a Trinity of Gods; and these ideas cannot be effaced by, a lip-confession of one God.

That a trinity of Divine persons from eternity is a trinity of Gods is clearly evident from the following passage in the Athanasian Creed:

"There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit; the Father is God and Lord; the Son is God and Lord; and the Holy Spirit is God and Lord; nevertheless there are not three Gods and Lords, but one God and Lord; for as we are compelled by the Christian verity to confess each person singly to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say three Gods or three Lords."

This creed is accepted as ecumenical or universal by the whole Christian church, and all that is at this day known and acknowledged respecting God is from it. That no other trinity than a trinity of Gods was understood by the members of the Nicene Council, from which the Athanasian Creed came forth like a posthumous birth, anyone can see who reads it with his eyes open. And not only was the trinity understood by them to be a trinity of Gods, it was so understood by the whole Christian world as well, for the reason that the whole Christian world derives all its knowledge of God from that source, and every man clings to a belief in its words.

I appeal to everyone, layman and clergyman, to titled masters and professors, consecrated bishops and arch-bishops, purple-robed cardinals, and even the Roman pontiff himself, whether in the Christian world today the trinity is understood to be anything else than a trinity of Gods; let everyone of them consult with himself and speak from the things that are in his mind; for from the words of this universally accepted doctrine respecting God this is as manifest and clear as water in a crystal goblet, and also that there are three persons, each one of whom is God and Lord; and further that according to Christian verity each person singly ought to be confessed or acknowledged to be God and Lord, but that the Catholic or Christian religion or faith forbids the saying or naming three Gods and Lords; thus verity and religion, or verity and faith, are not one thing but two things, each contrary to the other. But lest all this should be exposed to ridicule before the whole world it was added that there are not three Gods and Lords, but one God and Lord; for who would not laugh at the idea of three Gods? And still does not everyone see the contradiction in this addition?

If they had said, indeed, that to the Father belongs the Divine essence, to the Son the Divine essence, and to the Holy Spirit the Divine essence, and yet there are not three Divine essences, but one indivisible essence, that is to say, if by the Father there be understood the Divine from whom [a Quo], by the Son the Divine Human therefrom, and by the Holy Spirit the proceeding Divine, which are the three constituents of the one God, then this mystery would be explicable.

Or if we understood by the Divine of the Father what is like the soul in man, and by the Divine Human what is like the body of that soul, and by the Holy Spirit what is like the operation that proceeds from both, then three essences, which belong to one and the same person, and so together constitute one indivisible essence, are understood.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 172)

The Divine Trinity (pt 6)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 6)

Before the world was created this Trinity was not; but after creation, when God became incarnate, it was provided and brought about, and then in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the Christian Church at the present day a Divine trinity existing before the creation of the world is acknowledged; that is, that Jehovah God begat a Son from eternity, and that the Holy Spirit then went forth from both, and that each of these three is by Himself or singly God, because each is one person subsisting of Himself. —

• But as this is incomprehensible to all reason it is called a mystery, which can be penetrated only in this way - that these three have one Divine essence, by which is meant eternity, immensity, omnipotence, and thus an equal Divinity, glory, and majesty.

• But that this trinity is a trinity of three Gods, and therefore in no sense a Divine trinity, will be shown in what follows: while from all that precedes it is evident that the trinity (which is also a trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) which was provided and brought about when God became incarnate, thus after the world was created, is a Divine trinity, because it is a trinity in one God.

This divine trinity is in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, because the three essentials of the one God, which constitute one essence, are in Him.

That in Him (as Paul says) dwelleth all the fullness of Divinity is evident also from the words of the Lord Himself, that all things of the Father are His, and that the Holy Spirit speaks from Him, and not of itself; and finally, that when He arose He took from the sepulchre His whole human body, both the flesh and the bones (Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:5, 6; Luke 24:1-3; John 20:11-15), unlike any other man; of which He bore living witness to His disciples, saying:

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

From this every man may be convinced, if he will, that the Lord's humanity is Divine; consequently, that in Him -

God is Man and Man is God.

The trinity which the present Christian Church has embraced and brought into its faith, is that God the Father begat a Son from eternity, and that the Holy Spirit then went forth from both, and that each one of Himself is a God. Human minds can conceive of this trinity only as a triarchy, like the government of three kings in one kingdom, or of three generals over one army, or of three masters in one household, all possessing an equal power. From this what but destruction could ensue?

Or if one wishes to figure or shadow forth this triarchy before his mind's sight, and at the same time the unity of its members, he can present it to contemplation only as a man with three heads on one body, or as three bodies under one head. In such a monstrous image must the trinity appear to those who believe that there are three Divine persons each by Himself God, and who join these into one God, but deny that God, because He is one, is therefore one person.

That a Son of God begotten from eternity descended and assumed a Human may be compared to the fables of the ancients, that human souls created at the beginning of the world enter into bodies and become men.

Also to the absurd notion that the soul of one person passes into another, as many in the Jewish church believed; for example, that the soul of Elijah would pass into the body of John the Baptist, and that David would return into his own or into some other man's body, and rule over Israel and Judah, because it is said in Ezekiel:

I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; and he shall be their shepherd and I Jehovah will be to them as God, and David a prince among them (34:23, 24);

besides other passages; not knowing that the Lord is there meant by "David."

(True Christian Religion 170, 171)

The Divine Trinity (pt 5)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 5)

When it is said that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the three essentials of the one God, like soul, body, and operation in man, it seems to the human mind as if these three essentials are three persons, which is impossible.

But when it is understood that the Divine of the Father, which constitutes the soul, and the Divine of the Son, which constitutes the body, and the Divine of the Holy Spirit or the proceeding Divine, which constitutes the operation, are the three essentials of the one God, the statement is comprehensible.

For God the Father is His Divine, the Son from the Father is His Divine, and the Holy Spirit from both is His Divine; and as these are one in essence and one in mind they constitute one God.

But if these three Divine essentials are called persons, and if to each person is attributed his own property, to the Father imputation, to the Son mediation, and to the Holy Spirit operation, the Divine Essence, which in fact is one and not divisible, becomes divided: and thus none of the three is God in fullness, but each has a sub-triple power; and this a sound understanding must needs reject.

From the trinity in every man, then, who can fail to perceive the trinity in the Lord?

In every man there is soul, body, and operation; so also in the Lord, for in the Lord dwells all the fullness of Divinity bodily, according to Paul (Col. 2:9); therefore in the Lord the trinity is Divine, but in man it is human.

In this mystical notion that there are three Divine persons and yet one God, and that this God, although one, is nevertheless not one person, everyone can see that reason has no part, but has been lulled to sleep, and still it compels the mouth to speak like a parrot. And when reason is put to sleep what is speech from the mouth but dead speech? When the mouth utters that which reason turns away from and dissents from, is not speech foolish?

At this day human reason, in respect to the Divine trinity, is bound like a man in prison, manacled and fettered; and it may be compared to a vestal virgin buried alive for permitting the sacred fire to die out; and yet in the minds of men of the church the Divine trinity ought to shine like a lamp, since God in His trinity and in the unity thereof is the All in all the sanctities of heaven and the church. But if the soul is made one God, and the body another, and the operation a third, how does this differ from making three parts, each distinct from the other, out of these three essentials of one man? And what is that but cutting him in pieces and slaying him?

(True Christian Religion 168, 169)

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)