TCR.13, 1.1.6, 'If God were not one, the universe could not have been created and preserved.'

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(6) If God were not one, the universe could not have been created and preserved.

 

The unity of God may be inferred from the creation of the universe, because the universe is a work coherent as a unit from things first to things last, and dependent upon one God as a body upon its soul. The universe was so created that God might be omnipresent, and hold each and all of its parts under his direction, and keep its parts together as one body perpetually, which is to preserve it. Moreover, because of this Jehovah God declares:

 

이스라엘의 왕인 여호와, 이스라엘의 구원자인 만군의 여호와가 이같이 말하노라 나는 처음이요 나는 마지막이라 나 외에 다른 신이 없느니라 (사44:6); 주 하나님이 이르시되 나는 알파와 오메가라 이제도 있고 전에도 있었고 장차 올 자요 전능한 자라 하시더라 (계1:8); 내가 볼 때에 그의 발 앞에 엎드러져 죽은 자 같이 되매 그가 오른손을 내게 얹고 이르시되 두려워하지 말라 나는 처음이요 마지막이니 (계1:17) That he is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega (Isa. 44:6; Rev. 1:8, 17).

 

네 구속자요 모태에서 너를 지은 나 여호와가 이같이 말하노라 나는 만물을 지은 여호와라 홀로 하늘을 폈으며 나와 함께 한 자 없이 땅을 펼쳤고 (사44:24) That he maketh all things, spreadeth forth the heavens above, and stretcheth forth the earth by himself (Isa. 44:24).

 

This vast system which is called the universe is a work coherent as a unit from things first to things last, because in creating it God had a single end in view, which was an angelic heaven from the human race; and all things of which the world consists are means to that end; since he who seeks an end seeks also the means.

 

[2] Consequently, whoever regards the world as a work containing means to that end is able to look upon the created universe as a work coherent as a unit, and to see that the world is a complex of uses, existing in a successive order, looking to the human race (from which is the angelic heaven) as its end. The Divine love can be intent upon no other end than the eternal blessedness of men, having its source in the Divine; and its Divine wisdom can bring forth nothing but uses that are means to that end. Surveying the world from this most general idea, every wise man can comprehend that the creator of the universe is a one, and that his essence is love and wisdom; consequently there can not be in it the smallest particular in which there does not lie hidden some use, more or less remote, for man—food from the fruits of the earth and from animals, and clothing from the same sources.

 

[3] How wonderful it is that the insignificant silkworm should clothe with silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from queens and kings to maidservants and menservants; and that a petty insect like the bee should supply wax for the tapers which make temples and palaces brilliant. Those who study in minute detail a few things in the world, and not all things in their most general relations, including ends, mediate cases, and effects, and who, furthermore, do not deduce creation from Divine love through Divine wisdom, are unable to see that the universe is the workmanship of one God, and that he dwells in every particular use because he dwells in the end. For in every case one who is in an end must be in the means also, since the end is inmostly in all the means, actuating and directing them.

 

[4] Those who do not regard the universe as the workmanship of God and the dwelling place of his love and wisdom, but as the workmanship of nature and the dwelling place of the sun’s heat and light, close the higher regions of their mind against God, and open its lower regions for the devil, and consequently put off their human nature and put on a bestial nature, and not only think themselves to be like the beasts but actually become so. For they become foxes in cunning, wolves in fierceness, panthers in treachery, tigers in cruelty, and crocodiles, serpents, owls, and other birds of night, in the several characteristics of these. Moreover, in the spiritual world those who are such do at a distance actually appear like these wild beasts. Thus does their love of evil portray itself.