354. (iv) However numerous the truths of faith are and however varied they appear, they are made one by the Lord, who is the Word, the God of heaven and earth, the God of all flesh, the God of the vineyard or the church, the God of faith and light itself, truth and everlasting life. The truths which make up faith are varied and to human sight appear different. For example, some are concerned with God the Creator, others with the Lord the Redeemer, others with the Holy Spirit and the way God works, others with faith, and charity, others with free will, repentance, reformation and regeneration, imputation, and so on. Yet they all make one in the Lord, and are made one by the Lord in human beings, like many branches on one vine (John 15:1ff). For the Lord links together scattered and divided truths, so to speak, into a single form, so that they present the appearance of being one and function as one.
This can be illustrated by a comparison with the limbs, viscera and organs in a single body: despite their variety and their apparent difference to our sight, still the person whose whole form they compose is only aware of them as a single unit, and when he uses them all in action, he acts as if with a single unit. It is much the same with heaven: although it is divided into countless communities, yet it looks like one in the sight of the Lord. I showed above that it looks like one person. It is much the same with a kingdom, which although divided into many administrative districts, provinces and towns, still acts as one under the guidance of a king endowed with righteousness and judgment. The reason why, by the Lord's doing, the truths that make up faith and make the church truly a church behave in the same way, is that the Lord is the Word, the God of heaven and earth, the God of all flesh, the God of the vineyard or the church, the God of faith, and light itself, truth and everlasting life.
[2] It is evident in John's gospel that the Lord is the Word, and thus all the truth of heaven and the church.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, John 1:1, 14.
It is evident in Matthew that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth.
Elsewhere:
Jesus said, All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth, 28:18.
The Lord is the God of all flesh, in John:
The Father gave the Son power over all flesh, 17:2.
The Lord is the God of the vineyard or the church, in Isaiah:
My beloved had a vineyard, 5:1-2.
In John:
I am the vine and you are the branches, 15:5.
The Lord is the God of faith, in Paul:
Having righteousness, which is from faith in Christ, from faith in God, Philippians 3:9.
The Lord is light itself, in John:
He was the true light, which enlightens everyone who comes into the world, 1:9.
Elsewhere:
Jesus said, I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness, 12:46.
The Lord is truth itself, in John:
Jesus said, I am the way, truth and life, 14:6.
The Lord is everlasting life, in John:
We know that the Son of God came, so that we might Know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true in His son Jesus Christ. 1
He is the true God and everlasting life, 1 John 5:20.
[3] It needs to be added that worldly affairs prevent people from acquiring more than a few truths to make up faith. Still, if anyone approaches the Lord and worships Him alone, he is enabled to get to know all truths. As soon, therefore, as every true worshipper of the Lord hears some truth of faith previously unknown to him, he immediately sees, acknowledges and accepts it. The reason is that the Lord is in him, and he is in the Lord. Consequently the light of truth is in him, and he is in the light of truth, for, as was said above, the Lord is light itself and truth itself.
The following experience can support this. I saw a spirit who in the company of others appeared simple, because he had acknowledged the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth, and had established his faith by means of a few truths taken from the Word. He was carried up into heaven to join the wiser angels, and I was told that there he was as wise as they were; in fact, he uttered numerous truths, entirely as if of himself, of which he had previously been totally ignorant.
[4] The state of those who are to come into the Lord's new church will be similar. This is the same state as is described by Jeremiah:
This shall be the covenant which I shall make with the house of Israel after these days. I will set my law in their midst, and I will write it upon their heart. Nor shall they any more teach a man his companion, or a man his brother, saying, get to know Jehovah 2
; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them, 31:33-34.
That state will also be as described by Isaiah:
A shoot will come forth from the stock of Jesse. Truth will be the belt around his thighs. Then the wolf will stay with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid. The sucking child will play on the hole of the viper, and the weaned child will thrust his hand on the den of the basilisk. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea. On that day the nations will seek the root of Jesse, and peace will be his glory, [1, 5,].
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