To “dwell” somewhere, then, is significant – it’s much more than just visiting – but is less permanent than living there. And indeed, to dwell somewhere in the Bible represents entering that spiritual state and engaging it, but not necessary permanently. A “dwelling,” meanwhile, represents the various loves that inspire the person who inhabits it, from the most evil – “those dwelling in the shadow of death” in Isaiah 9, for example – to the exalted state of the tabernacle itself, which was built as a dwelling-place for the Lord and represents heaven in all its details. Many people were nomadic in Biblical times, especially the times of the Old Testament, and lived in tents that could be struck, moved and raised quickly. Others, of course, lived in houses, generally made of stone and wood and quite permanent. In between the two were larger, more elaborate tent-style structures called tabernacles or dwellings; the tabernacle Moses built for the Ark of the Covenant is on this model.

119. The second Memorable Experience from THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. ¹ Awakened one time out of sleep I fell into a profound meditation concerning God; and when I looked upwards I saw in the heaven above me a most brilliant white light in an oval form. As I fixed my gaze upon that light it receded from the centre towards the circumference. And behold, heaven was then opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels standing in a circle on the southern side of the opening in conversation with one another. And because I was consumed with desire to hear what they were talking about, I was allowed to hear first the sound which was full of celestial love, and afterwards their speech which was full of wisdom from that love. They spoke together concerning the One God, and concerning union with Him, and salvation thence. They mentioned ineffable things, many of which could not be expressed in the words of any natural language. But as I had often been among angels in their heaven, and had, then, a similar speech, because I was in a similar state, therefore I was now able to understand them, and to select from their conversation some particulars which may be intelligibly expressed in natural language.

[2] They said that the Divine Being (Esse) is One, the Same, the Very Self, and Indivisible; that so also is the Divine Essence, because the Divine Being (Esse) is the Divine Essence; that so, likewise, is God, because the Divine Essence, which is also the Divine Being (Esse), is God. They illustrated this by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Being (Esse) cannot possibly become several, in each of which is the Divine Being (Esse) and yet remain One, the Same, the Very Self, and Indivisible; for then each would think from His own Esse, out of and by Himself. If then each thought also from the Others and by the Others unanimously, and at the same time, they would then be several unanimous Gods, not one God. For unanimity, being the agreement of several and at the same time of each One from Himself and by Himself, does not agree with the unity of God, but implies plurality. They did not say a plurality of Gods because they could not; for the light of heaven from which they thought, and in which their words were spoken, prevented it. They also said that when they wished to pronounce the word "Gods" and to speak of each as a Person by Himself, the effort of utterance was immediately turned into the expression "One God," yea, "The Only God."

[3] To this they added that the Divine Being (Esse) is the Divine Being (Esse) in Itself, not from Itself, because "from Itself" postulates a Being (Esse) in Itself from another thus it supposes a God from a God, which is impossible. What is from God is not called God, but the Divine. For what is God from God, or what is God born of God from eternity, and what is God from God proceeding through a God born from eternity, but mere words in which there is not the least light from heaven? They said further that the Divine Being (Esse), which in Itself is God, is THE SAME; not the Same simply but infinitely; that is, the Same from eternity to eternity that it is the Same everywhere, and with everyone and in everyone, but that all variation and change are in the recipient, and are caused by the state of the recipient.

[4] That the Divine Being (Esse), which is God in Himself, is the Very Self, they illustrated in this way. God is the Very Self because He is Love itself and Wisdom itself; or, what is the same, because He is Good itself and Truth itself, thence Life itself. Unless these were the Very Self in God, they would not be anything in heaven or the world, since there would be nothing in them having relation to the Very Self. For every quality draws its nature from this, that there is the Very Self from which it is, and to which it has relation in order that it may be what it is. This Very Self, which is the Divine Being (Esse), is not in place, but is with those and in those who are in place according to reception. For neither place nor progression from one place to another can be asserted of Love and Wisdom, or of Good and Truth, or of Life thence, which are the Very Self in God, yea, God Himself; these are without place, hence their omnipresence. Wherefore the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him.

[5] But, as He cannot be received by anyone such as He is in Himself, He appears as He is in Himself as a sun above the angelic heaven, and that which proceeds from it as light is Himself as to wisdom, and that which proceeds as heat is Himself as to love. He Himself is not that sun but the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in their immediate emanation from Him appear round about Himself as a sun before the angels. He Himself, within the sun, is a Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, both as to the Originating Divine and as to the Divine Human; inasmuch as the Very Self, which is Love itself and Wisdom itself, was His soul from the Father; thus Divine Life which is Life in itself. It is otherwise with every man; for in man the soul is not life, but a recipient of life. This the Lord also teaches when He says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life;John 14:6. And in another place, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:26. Life in Himself is God. The angels added that those who are in any spiritual light may see plainly from these things that the Divine Esse, which is also the Divine Essence, because it is One, the Same, the Very Self, and thence indivisible, cannot possibly exist in more than one; and that, if it should be said that it does so, manifest contradictions would follow.

[6] After hearing these things, the angels perceived in my thought the usual ideas of the Christian Church respecting God as a trinity of Persons in unity, and their unity in trinity; also of the birth of a Son of God from eternity. Whereupon they said to me, "What are you thinking about? Are you thinking of those things from natural light, with which our spiritual light does not agree? Unless you remove those ideas from your thoughts we must close heaven against you and go away." Then I said to them, "Enter, I beseech you, more deeply into my thought, and perchance you will find agreement." And they did so, and saw that by three Persons I mean three proceeding Divine attributes, which are Creation, Redemption and Regeneration, and that those attributes belong to the One God; also that by the birth of a Son of God from eternity, I understand His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time. I then told them that my natural thought concerning a trinity and unity of persons, and of the birth of a Son of God from eternity, was derived from the doctrine of faith in the Church named after Athanasius, and that this doctrine is correct if, instead of a trinity of Persons, there is substituted a trinity of Person existing solely in the Lord Jesus Christ; and if, instead of the birth of a Son of God from eternity, His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time is understood; because, as to the Human which He assumed, He is expressly called the Son of God.

[7] Then the angels said, "That is good." And they asked me to say on their testimony that if anyone does not approach the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven; because heaven is heaven from this One and Only God; and that this God is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah Lord, the Creator from eternity, the Redeemer in time, and the Regenerator to eternity; thus, Who is at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and that this is the Gospel which is to be preached. After this the heavenly light which I had seen before returned, and by degrees descended and filled the interiors of my mind and enlightened my ideas concerning the unity and trinity of God. And then I saw that the ideas which I had first had on the trinity, and which were merely natural, were separated as chaff is separated from the wheat by winnowing, and were carried away as by a wind to the northern part of heaven, and there dispersed.

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