Accommodation of the Infinite to the Finite

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

. . . between Divine good and Divine truth there is this distinction: that Divine good is in the Lord, and Divine truth is from the Lord. It is as with the fire of the sun and the light which is therefrom; the fire is in the sun, and the light is from the sun; in the light there is not fire but heat.

Moreover, in the other life the Lord is the Sun, and also is the light. In the Sun there, which is Himself, is Divine fire, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. From that Sun is Divine light, which is Divine truth from Divine good. In this Divine truth, there is also Divine good, but not such as is in the Sun, it being accommodated to reception in heaven; for unless it were accommodated to reception, heaven could not have come into existence, because no angel can bear the flame from the Divine love. He would be consumed in a moment, as would a man if the flame of the sun of this world should blow directly upon him.

But how the Divine good of the Lord's Divine love is accommodated to reception, cannot be known by anyone, not even by the angels in heaven, because it is an accommodation of the Infinite to the finite; and the Infinite is such as to transcend all the understanding of the finite, insomuch that when the understanding of the finite desires to look in that direction, it falls as into the depth of the sea and perishes.

(Arcana Coelestia 8644)

Jehovah God Himself Descended and Became Man

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Jehovah God descended and assumed a Human that He might redeem men and save them. In the Christian churches at this day it is believed that God the Creator of the universe begat a Son from eternity, and that this Son descended and assumed a Human in order to redeem and save men. But this is an error, and of itself falls to the ground as soon as it is considered that God is one, and that it is worse than incredible in the sight of reason to say that the one God begat a Son from eternity, and that God the Father, together with the Son and Holy Spirit, each one of whom singly is God, is one God. This incredible notion is wholly dissipated, like a falling star in midair, when it is shown from the Word that Jehovah God Himself descended and became Man and also Redeemer.

The first statement, that it was Jehovah God Himself who descended and became Man, is made clear in the following passages:

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a Son, who shall be called God-with-us (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22, 23).

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, God, Mighty, Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).

It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him that He may deliver us; this is Jehovah; we have waited for Him; let us exult and be glad in His salvation (Isa. 25:9).

The voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah; make level in the wilderness a highway for our God, and all flesh shall see it together (Isa. 40:3, 5).

Behold, the Lord Jehovah cometh in strength, and His arm shall rule for Him behold, His reward is with Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd (Isa. 40:10, 11).

Jehovah said, Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come to dwell in the midst of thee. Then many nations shall cleave to Jehovah in that day (Zech. 2:10, 11).

I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and I will give thee for a covenant of the people. I am Jehovah; this is My name; My glory will I not give to another (Isa. 42:6-8).

Behold, the days come, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch and He shall reign as King, and He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness (Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16).

See also the places where the Lord's coming is called "the day of Jehovah" (as in Isa. 13:6, 9, 13, 22; Ezek. 31:15; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 2, 11; 3:1, 14, 18; Amos 5:13, 18, 20; Zeph. 1:7-18; Zech. 14:1, 4-21; and elsewhere).

That it was Jehovah Himself who descended and assumed the Human is especially evident in Luke, where it is said:

Mary said to the angel, How shall this come to pass, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:34, 35).

And in Matthew:

The angel said to Joseph, the bridegroom of Mary, in a dream, that that which was begotten in her was of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called His name Jesus (Matt. 1:20, 25).

. . . that the Divine that goes forth from Jehovah God is what is meant by the Holy Spirit. Who does not know that the offspring has its soul and life from the father, and that the body is from the soul? Can anything, then, be more plainly declared than that the Lord had His soul and life from Jehovah God; and as the Divine cannot be divided, that the very Divine of the Father was His soul and life? This is why the Lord so often called Jehovah God His Father, and why Jehovah God called Him His Son. Can there be anything, then, more absurd than to say that the soul of the Lord was from His mother Mary? as is at this day dreamed by both the Roman Catholics and the Reformed, they not having yet been awakened by the Word.

(True Christian Religion 82)

Accommodated to Reception

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:5)

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:46)

A few words may here be said about Divine good and Divine truth. The Lord as to the Divine Itself which is called "the Father," and as to the Divine Human which is called "the Son," is the Divine love itself, thus Divine good itself; but the Lord as heaven, which is beneath the Lord as a Sun, is the Divine truth; yet this Divine truth has within it the Divine good accommodated to the reception of angels and spirits. This Divine is what is called "the Spirit of Jehovah" and "the Holy." The reason why this is called Divine truth, and not Divine good, is that angels and spirits are created, and from this are receptions of the Divine truth that proceeds from the Divine good. They, like men, enjoy two faculties, namely, understanding and will, and the understanding has been formed to receive Divine truth, and the will to receive Divine good. The understanding serves them for reception, and also for perception.

An idea of this subject can be obtained by the simple from a comparison with the sun of the world, and with the world that comes forth from it. In the sun of the world there is fire, but that which proceeds from it is heat and light. Everyone is able to know that the light is not in the sun itself, but that the light proceeds from it. And insofar as the light proceeding from the sun has heat in it, plants live and grow, and bring forth fruits and seeds. These things are said by comparison, because universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom; and it is such a representative theater because the natural world came forth through the spiritual world from the Divine, and perpetually comes forth, that is, subsists; hence it is that in the Word by the "sun" is meant the Lord as to Divine love, in like manner by "fire;" and that by "light" is meant the Lord as to Divine truth.

(Arcana Coelestia 10196)

What The Soul Is, and What Its Nature Is

Extract from a Memorable Relation ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah God formed man, and breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).

Who does not believe that the soul is man's inmost and finest essence? Yet what is an essence without a form but a mere figment of the reason? The soul is therefore a form, but what kind of a form shall be explained.

It is the form of all things of love and all things of wisdom; all things of love are called affections, and all things of wisdom are called perceptions. These perceptions from their affections and with them constitute one form in which are innumerable things in such an order, series, and coherence and that they may be called a unit; and they may be called a unit because if it is to be such nothing can be taken from it or added to it. What is the human soul but such a form? Are not all things of love and all things of wisdom the essentials of that form? And in man these are in the soul, and from the soul in the head and body.

You are called spirits and angels; and in the world you believed spirits and angels to be like wind or ether, and thus to be minds or dispositions; but now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and actually men, who in the world thought and lived in a material body; and you knew that it was not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body; and this you called the soul, although of its form you had no knowledge, and yet you have now seen it and still see it. All of you are souls, respecting the immortality of which you have heard, thought, spoken, and written so much; and being forms of love and wisdom from God, you can never die.

Thus the soul is a human form, from which not an iota can be taken away, and to which not an iota can be added; and it is the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body. And as exterior forms receive both essence and form from the inmost form, so you, as you appear to yourselves and to us, are souls. In a word the soul is the man Himself, because it is the inmost man; and therefore its form is fully and completely the human form.  Yet it is not life, but the nearest receptacle of life from God, and thus God's dwelling-place.

(Extract from Memorable Relations, sixth - True Christian Religion 697:9,10)

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Memorabilia is a Latin word meaning "memorable things." Most translations of the Writings render it "Memorable Relations." Actually the term first occurs in the singular, and we then have aliquod memorabile -"something memorable." ~ Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr. 

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"I foresee that many who read the Memorable Relations that are appended to the chapters of this book will believe them to be figments of the imagination. But I declare in solemn truth that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and heard in some state of the mind when asleep, but in a state of complete wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach these things which will belong to His New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. For this purpose He has opened the interiors of my mind, that is, of my spirit; and in this way it has been granted to me to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-seven years." ~ Emanuel Swedenborg  (Conjugial Love 1)

Evils are to Be Shunned

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 4)

[3 - 4 - 5] Evils are to be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil and from the devil.  Goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God. They are to be done by a man as of himself; yet he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him.

What need is there to prove that devils ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil? And that goods ought to be done because they are of God and from God? And that these things ought to be done by man as if of himself, yet that he ought to believe that they are done from the Lord with him and through him?

That these three doctrines are true the whole of the Sacred Scripture confirms from beginning to end.  What else does it contain in summary, but admonition to shun evils and do goods, and to believe in the Lord God?

And moreover, without these three there is no religion. Is not religion a matter of life? And what is life but the shunning of evils and doing goods? And how can a man do these and believe these except as of himself? Therefore if you take these doctrines away from the church you take from it the Sacred Scriptures, and you also take away religion from it which being removed from the church it is not a church.

(from Conjugial Love 82)

Saving Faith is to Believe in Him

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 3)

[2] Saving faith is to believe in Him.

     • This is the will of the Father, that all who believe in the Son shall have everlasting life (John vi. 40).
     • God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John iii. 16).
     • He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the anger of God abideth on him (John iii. 36).

(from Conjugial Love 82)

He is The God of Heaven and Earth

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 2)

[1] There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ

Is not God one and indivisible? is there not a Trinity? If God is one and indivisible, is He not one Person? if one Person, is not the Trinity in that Person? That He is the Lord Jesus Christ, I demonstrate by the following:

     • He was conceived of God the Father (Luke 1:34, 35);
     • as to His soul He is God, and hence, as He himself says, that the Father and He are one (John 10:30);
     • He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:10, 11);
     • he that sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father (John 14:7, 9);
     • no one sees and knows the Father save He who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18);
     • all things of the Father are His (John 3:35; 16:15);
     • He is the way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father save by Him (John 14:6)
thus by Him because He is in Him
     • according to Paul, that in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9).

Furthermore we are taught that He has power over all flesh (John 17:2). and that He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).

From these passages it follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.

(from Conjugial Love 82)