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.