2. PARTE 1 - CIELO

1.) Il Signore è il Dio del cielo

Innanzi tutto deve essere noto chi è il Dio del cielo, perché da questo discendono tutte le cose. Nel cielo intero, nessun altro se non il Signore è riconosciuto quale Dio del cielo. Lì si dice, così come Egli stesso ha insegnato,

Che Egli è uno col Padre, e chi vede Lui, vede il Padre; che il Padre è in Lui e Lui nel Padre; che tutto ciò che è santo proviene da Lui (Giovanni 10:30, 38; 14:9-11; 16:13-15)

Spesso ho parlato con gli angeli di questo argomento, ed essi hanno immancabilmente sostenuto che sono incapaci di dividere il Divino in tre, perché sanno e percepiscono che il Divino è Uno e questo Uno e nel Signore. Hanno anche detto che quelli della chiesa che nel mondo hanno sostenuto l’idea di tre entità Divine, non possono entrare nel cielo, fintanto che il loro ragionamento vaga da un Dio ad un altro; e lì non è permesso pensare tre e dire uno, ¹ perché ognuno nel cielo parla secondo il proprio pensiero, infatti il discorso è il prodotto immediato del pensiero, ovvero è il pensiero che parla. Quindi quelli che in questo mondo separano il Divino in tre, e associano un’idea distinta ad ognuno di essi, e non individuano nell’idea di uno il Signore, non possono essere ricevuti nel cielo, perché nel cielo vi è una condivisione di tutti i pensieri, e perciò se qualcuno giunge lì con un’idea di tre, ma afferma uno, è subito individuato e respinto. Ma deve essere noto che tutti quelli che non hanno separato ciò che è vero da ciò che è buono, ovvero la fede dall’amore, accolgono nell’altra vita, ove sono opportunamente istruiti, l’idea del Signore che è il Dio dell’universo. Avviene altrimenti per quelli che hanno separato la fede dall’amore, cioè coloro che non hanno vissuto in conformità dei precetti della fede autentica.

სქოლიოები:

230. The profanation of what is holy is referred to in the second of the Ten Commandments in the words, "You shall not profane the name of your God" [Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11]; and the Lord's prayer is telling us that we must not profane what is holy when it says, "Hallowed be your name" [Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2]. Hardly anyone in all Christendom knows what "the name of God" means. This is because people do not know that people in the spiritual world do not have names the way we do in this physical world. Rather, each individual is named for her or his own love and wisdom. As soon as we enter a community or a gathering of people, we are immediately given a name that expresses our nature. We are named in a spiritual language that is essentially able to give a distinctive name to every individual thing, because every letter in its alphabet means something definite; and when many letters are combined into a single word, as happens with an individual's name, they include the whole state of that object. This is just one of the marvels of the spiritual world.

[2] We can see from this that in the Word, "the name of God" means both God and everything divine that is in him and that emanates from him. Since the Word is a divine emanation, it is a name of God; and since all the divine gifts that we refer to as the spiritual gifts of the church come from the Word, they too are a name of God.

This enables us to see what "You shall not profane the name of your God" means in the second of the Ten Commandments, and what "Hallowed be your name" means in the Lord's Prayer.

"The name of God" and "the name of the Lord" mean much the same in many passages in the Word in both Testaments. See, for example, Matthew 7:22; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 18:5, 20; Matthew 19:29; Matthew 21:9; Matthew 24:9-10; John 1:12; John 2:23; John 3:17-18; John 12:13, 28; John 14:14-15, 16; John 16:23-24, 26-27; John 17:6; and John 20:31, among others, as well as a great many in the Old Testament.

[3] If you know the meaning of this "name," then you can know the meaning of the Lord's words, "Whoever accepts a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. Whoever receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward; and whoever gives one of these little ones something cold to drink in the name of a disciple will not lose the reward" (Matthew 10:21 [Matthew 10:41-42]). If you understand the name of a prophet or a righteous person or a disciple to mean nothing but the prophet or the righteous person or the disciple, then the only meaning you get will be a literal one. You will not know, either, what is meant by the reward of the prophet or the reward of the righteous person or the reward for the cold drink given on behalf of the disciple. Yet the name and the reward of the prophet mean the blessed state of people who enjoy divine gifts of truth, and the name and the reward of the righteous person mean the blessed state of people who enjoy divine gifts of what is good, while the disciple means the state of people who have some of the spiritual gifts of the church, and the cold drink is any element of truth.

[4] We can also tell that the name means the nature of the state of love and wisdom, or of what is good and true, from these words of the Lord: "The one who comes in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens to him and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out" (Matthew 10:2, 3 [John 10:2-3]). "Calling sheep by name" is teaching and leading every individual whose deeds are prompted by caring, and doing so in keeping with that individual's state of love and wisdom. "The door" means the Lord, as we can tell from verse 9: "I am the door. Anyone who enters in by me will be saved." This shows that we need to turn to the Lord himself if we are to be saved, and that the one who does turn to him is a shepherd of his sheep. Anyone who does not turn to him is a thief and a robber, as it says in the first verse of the same chapter.