2. The Lord is God of Heaven

First and foremost, we need to know who the God of heaven is, since everything else depends on this. Throughout the whole of heaven, no one is acknowledged as God of heaven except the Lord. Angels say what he himself taught, namely that he is one with the Father, that the Father is in him and he in the Father, that anyone who sees him sees the Father, and that everything holy emanates from him (John 10:30, 38; 14:9-11, 16; 16:13-15). I have often talked with angels about this, and their consistent testimony has been that in heaven they cannot divide the Divine into three because they both know and perceive that the Divine is one and that this "one" is in the Lord. They have also told me that when people arrive from earth with the idea of three divine beings they cannot be admitted to heaven. This is because their thinking vacillates between one opinion and the other, and in heaven they are not allowed to think "three" and say "one." ¹

In heaven people actually speak directly from their thought, so that we have there a kind of thoughtful speech or audible thought. This means that if people have divided the Divine into three in the world and held a separate image of each one without gathering and focusing these three into one, they cannot be accepted. In heaven, there is a communication of all thoughts, so if people arrive who think "three" and say "one," they are recognized immediately for what they are and are sent away.

Still, it needs to be realized that in the other life any people who have not put "good" in one compartment and "true" in another - who have not separated faith from love - accept the heavenly concept of the Lord as God of the universe once they have been taught. It is different, though, with people who have separated their faith from their lives, that is, who have not lived by the guiding principles of true faith.

Note a piè di pagina:

1408. The events described here and in what follows took place in history as they are recorded, yet the historical events as described are representative, and every word carries a spiritual meaning. This is so in all of the historical parts of the Word, not only in the Books of Moses but also in those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, all of which books contain nothing else than historical narratives. But although they are historical narratives in the sense of the letter, in the internal sense there are arcana of heaven lying hidden there. These arcana cannot possibly be seen as long as the mind keeps its eye fixed on the historical details, nor are they disclosed until the mind removes itself from the sense of the letter. The Word of the Lord is like a body that has a living soul within it. The things that belong to the soul are not apparent as long as the mind is fixed on those of the body, so much so that it scarcely believes it possesses a soul, even less that it will be alive after death. But as soon as the mind departs from bodily things, those belonging to the soul and to life show themselves; and in this lies the reason not only why bodily things must die before a person can be born anew or be regenerated, but also why the body must die so that he can enter heaven and behold heavenly things.

[2] The same applies to the Word of the Lord Its bodily parts are the things that constitute the sense of the letter, and when the mind is fixed on these the internal things are not seen at all. But once the bodily parts so to speak have died, the internal for the first time are brought to view. All the same, the things constituting the sense of the letter are like the things present with man in his body, namely the facts belonging to the memory which come in through the senses and which are general vessels containing interior or internal things. From this one may recognize that the vessels are one thing and the essential elements within the vessels another. The vessels are natural, and the essential elements within the vessels are spiritual and celestial. In the same way the historical narratives of the Word, as with each individual expression in the Word, are general, natural, indeed material vessels that have spiritual and celestial things within them. These things never come into sight except through the internal sense.

[3] This may become clear to anyone simply from the fact that many matters in the Word have been stated according to appearances, indeed according to the illusions of the senses, such as that the Lord is angry, punishes, curses, slays, and many other such statements, when in fact the internal sense contains the reverse, namely that the Lord is never angry or punishes, still less curses or slays. All the same, no harm at all is done to people who in simplicity of heart believe the Word as they find it in the letter so long as they are leading charitable lives, the reason being that the Word teaches nothing other than this - that everyone ought to live in charity with his neighbour and to love the Lord above all things. People doing this are in possession of the internal things, and thus with them the illusions acquired from the sense of the letter are easily dispersed.

9303. 'Behold, I send an angel before you' means the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'sending', when it refers to the Lord, as going forth, dealt with in 6831, at this point causing to go forth; and from the meaning of 'an angel' as one who goes forth, for the word for 'angel' in the original language means one who has been sent. This is the derivation of the word, and 'one sent' means one going forth, as becomes clear from the places in the Word referred to in 6831. From this it is evident that 'the angel of Jehovah' is used to mean the Lord's Divine Human, for this comes forth from Jehovah as the Father. Jehovah as the Father is the Divine Good of Divine Love, which is Essential Being (Esse), 3704; and He who comes forth from the Father is the Divine Truth emanating from that Divine Good. He is accordingly the Divine Coming-into-Being (Existere) that arises from the Divine Being; and this Coming-into-Being is meant here by 'an angel'. The like occurs in Isaiah,

The angel of His face delivered them; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isaiah 63:9.

And in Malachi,

Behold, suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you are seeking, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Malachi 3:1-2.

'To the Lord's temple' means to His Human. The Lord Himself teaches that this is His temple, in Matthew 26:61, and in John 2:19, 21-22.

[2] The Church declares that from the three who are named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exists a Divine Unity, also called One God, and that the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son. But what proceeding or going forth means remains unknown. Angels' ideas about this are altogether different from those of people in the Church who have given thought to the matter. The reason for this is that the ideas of people in the Church are based on three, but those of angels on one. And the reason why the ideas of people in the Church are based on three is that they distinguish the Divine [Being] into three separate persons, to each of whom they attribute particular and specific functions. Consequently although they are indeed able to say that God is one, they can conceive only of three made one through mystical union, as they call it. This indeed allows them to conceive of Divine Unity but not of One God, since they have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in mind. Divine Unity is unity arrived at through agreement and so unanimity; but One God is wholly and completely one.

[3] What kind of idea or way of thinking members of the Church have about one God is perfectly clear in the next life, for each individual person takes his ideas and thoughts with him. In their thinking they envisage three gods, but they dare not to use the word 'gods', only 'God'. Few moreover make one out of three through union; for they think of the Father in one way, of the Son in another, and of the Holy Spirit in yet another. This has shown what kind of belief the Church has regarding the most essential thing of all, namely the Deity Himself. And since the belief and thoughts and the love and affections of all in the next life bring them together or set them apart, those who have been born outside the Church and have believed in one God shy away from those within the Church. They say that those within the Church do not believe in one God but in three gods, and that those who do not believe in one God in human form believe in no God at all, since they think of the whole universe, endless in extent, and so think of the natural order, which they acknowledge in place of God. When members of the Church are asked what they understand by 'proceeding' when they say that the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son, they reply that 'proceeding' is a term which has to do with union and is all part of that mystery.

[4] But when their ideas and thoughts about it have been examined, they have proved to be no more than those of a term and nothing of real substance. But angels' ideas about the Godhead, about the Trinity, and about proceeding are altogether different from those of members of the Church, because angels' ideas and thoughts, as stated above, are based on one, whereas those of members of the Church are based on three. Angels think - and what they think they believe - that there is one God and He is the Lord, that His Human is the Deity Himself in outward form, and that the holiness proceeding from Him is the Holy Spirit, thus that though there is a Trinity the Deity is intrinsically One.

[5] An idea concerning the angels in heaven may serve to make this intelligible. An angel there is seen in human form; nevertheless there are three things with him which make one. There is the inward part of him which does not appear before people's eyes, there is the outward part which does appear, and there is the sphere of the life belonging to his affections and thoughts, which flows out far and wide from him, regarding which see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2489, 4464, 5179, 6206 (end), 7454, 8063, 8630. These three make one angel. But angels are finite, created beings, whereas the Lord is Infinite and Uncreated; and since no one, not even an angel, can have an idea of the Infinite except from things that are finite, it is permissible to use such an example to shed light on what the Three in One is, on the truth that there is One God, and on the truth that He is the Lord, and no other. See in addition what has been shown already on these matters in the places referred to in 9194, 9199.