bygrace's Tistory Blog

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(5) The doctrine of a plurality of gods, both in past ages and at the present day, has sprung solely from a failure to understand the Divine esse.

It has been shown above (n. 8) that the unity of God is inmostly inscribed on the mind of every man, since it lies at the center of all that flows from God into the soul of man; and yet it has not descended therefrom into the human understanding, for the reason that the knowledges by which man must ascend to meet God have been lacking. For everyone must prepare the way for God, that is, must prepare himself for reception; and this is done by means of knowledges. The knowledges that have been lacking, and that enable the understanding to penetrate far enough to see that God is one, and that not more than one Divine esse is possible, and that from him is everything in nature, are as follows: (a) Heretofore no one has known anything about the spiritual world, the abode of spirits and angels, which every man enters after death. (b) It is equally unknown that there is in that world a sun, which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. (c) That from this sun a heat goes forth, which in its essence is love, and a light which in its essence is wisdom. (d) That in consequence all things in that world are spiritual, and affect the internal man, and constitute his will and understanding. (e) That Jehovah God from his sun has produced not only the spiritual world and all the spiritual things in it, which are innumerable and substantial, but also the natural world and all the natural things in it, which also are innumerable but are material. (f) Hitherto no one has known what the distinction is between the spiritual and the natural, nor even what the spiritual is in its essence. (g) Nor has anyone known that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, in accordance with which the angelic heavens are arranged. (h) Nor that the human mind is divided into that number of degrees, to the end that it may be raised after death into one of the three heavens, which takes place in accordance both with its life and its faith. (i) Finally, that not the least particle of any of these things could have had existence except from a Divine esse which in itself is the itself, and thus the first and the beginning, the source of all things. Hitherto these knowledges have been lacking; and yet these are the means through which a man may rise to a knowledge of the Divine esse.

[2] It is said that the man rises; but the meaning is that he is raised up by God. For in acquiring knowledges for himself man exercises his freedom of choice; but as he acquires for himself knowledges from the Word by means of his understanding he prepares the way by which God comes down and raises him up. The knowledges by means of which the human understanding rises, God holding it in his hand and leading it, may be likened to the steps of the ladder seen by Jacob, which was set upon the earth with the top of it reaching to heaven, by which the angels ascended while Jehovah stood above it (Gen. 28:12, 13). It is wholly different when these knowledges are lacking, or when man despises them. In that case the elevation of the understanding might be likened to a ladder reaching from the ground to the windows in the first story of a magnificent palace which is a dwelling place of men, and not to the windows of the second story which is a dwelling place of spirits, and still less to the windows of the third story which is a dwelling place of angels. The result of this is that man remains in the atmospheres and material things of nature only, and confines his eyes and ears and nostrils to these, and from these he derives no other ideas of heaven and of the esse and essence of God than such as pertain to the atmospheres and to matter. Thinking from such ideas man can form no conclusions about God, as to whether he is or is not, or whether he is one or many; still less what he is in respect to his esse and essence. This is the origin of the belief in the plurality of gods, both in past ages and at the present day.

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(4) It is impossible for the Divine esse and existere in itself to produce another Divine which is esse and existere in itself; therefore another God of the same essence is impossible.

It has been shown already that the one God who is the creator of the universe, is esse and existere in itself, that is, God in himself; and from this it follows that God from God is impossible, because in such a being the verily essential Divine, which is esse and existere in itself, is impossible. It is the same whether you say “begotten of God” or “proceeding from God”; it means, in either case, produced by God, and this differs but little from being created.

Therefore, to introduce into the church a belief in three Divine persons each of whom singly is God, and of the same essence, one of them born from eternity, and a third proceeding from eternity, is to destroy utterly the idea of God’s unity, and with it every idea of divinity, and so cause all the spirituality of reason to be driven into exile. Then man is man no longer; but is so wholly natural as to differ from a beast only in the power of speech, and is opposed to all the spiritual things of the church, for these the natural man calls foolishness. This is the source and only source from which have sprung the monstrous heresies concerning God; and thus the division of the Divine trinity into persons has introduced into the church not night alone but death as well.

[2] That the identity of three Divine essences is an offense to reason was made evident to me by angels, who said that they could not even utter the words “three equal divinities”; and that if anyone should come into their presence wishing to utter these words he could not but turn himself away; and after uttering them he would become like the trunk of a man, and would be hurled downward; and would afterwards betake himself to those in hell who do not acknowledge any God. The truth is that to implant in the mind of a child or youth the idea of three Divine persons, to which inevitably the idea of three gods clings, is to deprive it of all spiritual milk, and then of all spiritual food, and finally of all ability to reason spiritually, and to bring spiritual death upon those who confirm themselves in that idea. The difference between those who in faith and heart worship one God as the creator of the universe, and those who worship him as both the redeemer and the regenerator, is like the difference between the city of Zion in the time of David and the city of Jerusalem in the time of Solomon after the temple had been built; while a church that believes in three persons and in each as a distinct God, is like the city of Zion and Jerusalem after it had been overthrown by Vespasian and the temple burned. Furthermore, the man who worships one God in whom is a Divine trinity, and who is thus one person, becomes more and more a living and angelic man; while he who confirms himself in a belief in a plurality of Gods from believing in a plurality of persons, gradually becomes like a statue with movable joints, within which Satan stands and speaks through its artificial mouth.

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(3) The Divine esse is at once esse [being] in itself and existere [manifestation] in itself.

Jehovah God is esse in itself, because he is the I am, the only, and the first, from eternity to eternity, the source of everything that is, without whom it could not be. In this way and not otherwise he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and omega. It cannot be said that his esse is from itself, because the expression from itself implies something prior, and therefore time; and time is not applicable to the infinite, which is called infinite from eternity; it also implies another God who is God in himself, thus it implies God from God, or that God formed himself; in which case he would neither be uncreate nor infinite, for he would thus have made himself finite, either from himself or from another. From the fact that God is esse in itself it follows that he is love in itself, wisdom in itself, and life in itself, and that he is the itself, the source of all things, to which each thing must have relation in order to be anything. That God is God because he is life in itself is evident from the Lord’s words in John (5:26) and in Isaiah:

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) I am Jehovah that maketh all things; that spreadeth forth the heavens alone that stretcheth forth the earth by myself (Isa. 44:24)

and that he alone is God, and beside him there is no God (Isa. 45:14, 15, 21, 22; Hos. 13:4). God is not only esse [being] in itself, but also existere [manifestation] in itself, because esse without existere is nothing, equally so existere unless it is from esse; therefore where the one is the other must needs be. The same is true of substance and form. Unless a substance is also a form nothing can be predicated of it, and for the reason that having no quality it is in itself nothing. The terms esse and existere are here used, and not essence and existence, because a distinction must be made between esse and essence, and between existere and existence, like that between the prior and the posterior, the prior being more universal than the posterior. To the Divine esse infinity and eternity are applicable; while to the Divine essence and existence, Divine love and wisdom are applicable, and through these two omnipotence and omnipresence, which will be considered in their order.

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That God is the itself, the only, and the first, which is called esse and existere in itself, the source of all that has being and existence, the natural man is wholly unable to discover by his own reason; for by his own reason the natural man can apprehend only what belongs to nature, since that agrees with the essential nature of his reason, because from his infancy and childhood nothing else had entered into his reason. But because man was so created as to be spiritual as well as natural, since he is to continue to live after death, and then to live among those who are spiritual in their world, God has provided the Word— in which he has revealed not only himself but also that there is a heaven and a hell, and that in one or the other of these every man is to live to eternity, in accordance both with his life and his faith. Moreover, God has revealed in the Word that he is the I Am or esse and the itself and only, which in itself is, and thus the first or beginning, the source of all things.

[2] By this revelation the natural man is enabled to raise himself above nature, thus above himself, and to see such things as pertain to God, yet only as if at a distance, although God is nigh to every man, for in his essence he is in man; and being in man he is very nigh to those who love him; and those love him who live according to his commandments and believe in him; these as it were see him. What is faith but to see spiritually that God is? And what is a life according to his commandments but an acknowledgment in act that from him are salvation and eternal life? But those whose faith is not spiritual but natural, which is mere knowledge, and whose life is therefore natural, do indeed see God, but from afar off, and this only when they speak of him. The difference between these two classes is like the difference between those who stand in a clear light and see men near by and touch them, and those who stand in a thick mist in which they are unable to distinguish between men and trees or stones.

[3] Or it is like the difference between men on a high mountain on which there is a city, who are going about there having interaction with their fellow townsmen, and men looking down from the top of that mountain who are unable to tell whether the objects they see below are people, beasts, or statues. Or it is like the difference between men standing upon some planet and seeing those about them, and men on another planet looking at these through telescopes, and saying that they see people there, when in fact they see nothing but a most general outline of the land as lunar brightness, and the watery parts as spots. Such is the difference in seeing God and Divine things in the mind that go forth from him, between those who are both in faith and in a life of charity, and those who merely know about faith and charity; and such consequently is the difference between natural and spiritual men. But those who deny the Divine holiness of the Word, and yet carry their religion about as in a sack upon the back, do not see God at all, but only utter the word “God,” almost like parrots.