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)

Divine Trinity (pt 9)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 9)

A Trinity of Persons was unknown in the Apostolic Church, but was hatched by the Nicene Council, and from that was introduced into the Roman Catholic church, and from that again into the churches separated from it.

By the Apostolic church is meant the church that existed in various places not only in the time of the apostles, but also in the second and third centuries after.

But at length men began to wrench the door of the temple off its hinges, and to break robber-like into its sanctuary.

The temple is the church; the door is the Lord God the Redeemer; and the sanctuary His Divinity; for Jesus says:

Verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheep fold, 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 (John 10:1, 9).

This crime was committed by Arius and his followers.

On this account a council was convoked by Constantine the Great at Nice, a city in Bithynia; and in order to overthrow the pernicious heresy of Arius-

it was devised, decided upon, and ratified by the members of the council that there were from eternity three Divine persons, a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit, to each one of whom belonged personality, existence, and subsistence, by Himself and in Himself; also that the second person, or the Son, came down and took on a Human and wrought redemption; and therefore His Human, by a hypostatic union, possesses Divinity, and through that union He has close relationship with God the Father.

From that time heaps of abominable heresies about God and the person of Christ began to spring up from the earth, and Antichrists began to rear their heads and to divide God into three persons, and the Lord the Savior into two, thus destroying the temple set up by the Lord through the apostles, and this until not one stone was left upon another that was not thrown down, according to the Lord's words (Matt. 24:2), where by "the temple" not only the edifice at Jerusalem is meant but also the church, the consummation or end of which is treated of in the whole chapter.

But what else could have been expected from that council, or from those that followed, which in like manner divided the Godhead into three, and placed God in the flesh beneath them on their footstool? For by climbing up some other way they took the Head of the church away from its body; that is, they passed Him by, and mounted beyond to God the Father as to another, with the mere mention on their lips of Christ's merit, that is, that God on account of it might be merciful, and justification might thus flow into them directly with all that goes with it, namely, remission of sins, renovation, sanctification, regeneration, and salvation, and this without any meditation on man's part.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 174)

Divine Trinity (pt 8)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 8)

The idea of three Gods cannot be effaced by a lip-confession of one God, for the reason that-

from childhood this idea has been implanted in the memory, and it is from the things contained in the memory that everyone thinks.

The memory in man is like the ruminatory stomach in birds and beasts; into which they thrust the food from which they gradually derive nourishment; and from time to time they draw the food from it and convey it to the true stomach, where it is digested and meted out to the various uses of the body.  The human understanding is this latter stomach, as the memory is the former.

That the idea of three Divine persons from eternity, which is the same as the idea of three Gods, cannot be effaced by a lip confession of one God, can be seen by anybody from this fact alone, that it has not yet been effaced, and that among the notable there are some who do not wish it to be effaced; for while they insist that the three Divine persons are of one God, they obstinately deny that God, on account of being one, is one person.

But what wise man does not think within himself that the term person can not in this case mean person but that it predicates some quality, though what quality is not known? And this not being known, what has been implanted in the memory from childhood remains, as the roots of a tree remain in the ground, and from them, even if the tree be cut down, a shoot will spring forth.

But, my friend, not only cut down the tree, but also dig up the root, and then plant in your garden trees bearing good fruit.

Thus beware, lest in your mind there should lurk the idea of three Gods, while your mouth utters the words one God, with no idea in them. In that case is not the understanding (which above the memory is thinking of three Gods, and at the same time below the memory is causing the mouth to utter one God), like a player on the stage able to act two roles by running from one side to the other, at one side saying one thing and at the other just the opposite, and by such contradiction playing on the one side the wise man and on the other the fool? What else can result from this but that when the understanding stands in the center and looks both ways it will conclude that neither this nor that amounts to anything, and so, perhaps, that there is neither one God nor three, thus that there is no God?

The prevailing naturalism of the day is from no other source.

In heaven no one can utter the words, A trinity of persons each one of whom singly is God; for it is resisted by the very aura of heaven, in which the thoughts of those there fly and undulate, as sounds do in our air. Such words can be uttered only by a hypocrite, and the sound of his speech grates in the heavenly aura like the gnashing of teeth, or is like the croak of a raven trying to imitate a bird of song. Moreover, I have heard from heaven that to efface a belief established in the mind by confirmations favoring a trinity of Gods, by means of a lip-confession of one God, is as impossible as it is to draw a tree back through its seed, or a man's chin through a hair growing out of it.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 173)

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)