29. 2. God is infinite because he existed before the world, before space and time came into being. The physical world has time and space. The spiritual world, on the other hand, lacks actual time and space, although it does have apparent time and space.

Time and space were introduced into both worlds for the sake of distinguishing one thing from another, large from small, many from few - one quantity from another, and one quality from another. Time and space allow our bodily senses to discern the objects they are sensing; and they allow our mental senses to discern the objects they are sensing - to be affected, to think, and to choose.

Units of time were introduced into our physical world by the spinning of the earth on its axis and its orbit from point to point along the zodiac. (The sun, the source of heat and light for this whole globe of lands and seas, only seems to be the cause of these cycles.) The result is the times of day: morning, afternoon, evening, and night; and the seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The times of day vary from light to dark; the seasons of the year vary from hot to cold.

Units of space are part of our physical world because the earth was formed into a globe composed of substances whose elements are differentiated from each other and also extended.

In the spiritual world, there are no physical units of space or corresponding units of time. Yet there appear to be. Apparent space and time follow the different states of mind that spirits and angels go through there. The units of spiritual time and space match the desires of their will and the resulting thoughts in their intellect. Apparent space and time, then, are real - they are predictably determined by one's state of mind.

[2] The general opinion on the state of souls after death, as well as of angels and spirits, is that they have no extension - they are not in space or time. This has led to the saying about souls after death that they are in limbo, and that spirits and angels are ghosts, which are thought of as ether, air, breath, or wind.

In fact, souls after death are substantial people who live together like people in the physical world, only with units of space and time that are determined by their states of mind. If the spiritual universe - destination of souls and home of angels and spirits - lacked its own space and time then it could be passed through the eye of a needle or compressed onto the tip of a single hair. This would be possible if there were no substantial extension there. Since there is substantial extension there, however, angels live among each other with clear and distinct boundaries, in fact with even clearer boundaries than people on earth do, where there is material extension.

Time in the spiritual world is not marked by days, weeks, months, and years, because the sun there does not seem to rise and set or to swing across the sky. It stands still in the east, halfway between the horizon and the point directly overhead. Because everything that is physical in our world is substantial in the spiritual world, there are units of space there. I will say more on this topic in the part of this chapter that deals with creation [75-80].

[3] From what I have just said, you can see that there are space and time limitations on each and every thing in both worlds; and that people have limitations not only to their bodies but even to their souls. The same goes for spirits and angels.

From all the above we can draw the conclusion that God is infinite or without limits As Creator, Shaper, and Maker of the universe, he gave everything a limit or a boundary. He did so by means of the sun that surrounds him. That sun consists of the divine essence that goes out as a sphere around him. In that sun and from it, the first limitedness occurs. Things are increasingly limited the closer they are to the lowest level of nature in the world. Since God was not created, in himself he is without limits, or infinite.

What is infinite may seem to us to be nothing, because we are finite and limited, and we base our thinking on things that are limited. If the limitations in our thought were taken away, we would see whatever was left as nothing. Yet the truth is that God is infinitely everything; of ourselves, we are relatively nothing.

153. 5. The Lord takes these actions on his own initiative on behalf of the Father, not the other way around. The reference to "taking actions" in this opening sentence means the same thing as "sending the Holy Spirit," since the processes listed above - reforming, regenerating, renewing, bringing to life, sanctifying, justifying, [purifying] from evils, and forgiving sins - which are attributed these days to the Holy Spirit as a God by himself, are actually processes carried out by the Lord.

As for the point that these processes are carried out by the Lord on behalf of the Father and not the other way around, I will first support this from the Word and then illustrate it with parallels.

Support from the Word occurs in the following passages:

When the Comforter comes, whom I am going to send from the Father - the Spirit of Truth that goes out from the Father - he will testify about me. (John 15:26)

If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I do go away, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)

The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, will not speak to you on his own; he will take from what is mine and make it known to you. All things whatever that the Father has are mine. This is why I said that he will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John 16:13-15)

The Holy Spirit was not yet in existence, because Jesus was not glorified yet. (John 7:39)

Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " (John 20:22)

Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father is glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I myself will do it. (John 14:13-14)

[2] From these passages it is perfectly obvious that the Lord "sends the Holy Spirit," that is, carries out those processes that are ascribed nowadays to the Holy Spirit as a God by himself. The Lord said that he was going to send the Holy Spirit from the Father; he was going to send the Holy Spirit "to you. " Furthermore, the Holy Spirit was not yet in existence, because Jesus was not glorified yet; and after Jesus was glorified he breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " The Lord also said "Whatever you ask in my name, I myself will do it;" and said that the Comforter was going to take "from what is mine" that which he was to make known. (For evidence that the Comforter is the same as the Holy Spirit, see John 14:26.)

It is not that God the Father carries out those processes on his own initiative through the Son, but rather that the Son carries them out on his own initiative on behalf of the Father, as the following passages clearly show: "No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is close to the Father's heart, has made him visible" (John 1:18 and elsewhere). "You have never heard the voice of the Father or seen what he looks like" (John 5:37).

[3] From these passages it follows that God the Father works on and in the Son but not through him. Instead, the Lord works on his own initiative on behalf of his Father. For he says, "Everything the Father has is mine" (John 16:15). "The Father has given all things into the hand of the Son" (John 3:35). Also, "as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:26). And "the words that I speak are spirit and are life" (John 6:63).

Admittedly, the Lord does say that the Spirit of Truth goes out from the Father (John 15:26). The reason he says this, however, is that the Spirit of Truth goes out from God the Father into the Son, and it goes out from the Son on behalf of the Father. This is why it says, "In that day you will recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father, and you are in me and I am in you" (John 14:11, 20).

The Lord's clear statements reveal as blatantly incorrect the Christian world's belief that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to us. The Greek Church, as well, is wrong to believe that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit directly.

The concept that the Lord sends the Holy Spirit on his own initiative on behalf of God the Father, not the other way around, comes from heaven. Angels call it a secret that has not yet been discovered in the world.