22. Moreover, it will be proved in its own article in what follows, that the passion of the Lord's cross was not Redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the Father, from which He came forth and into which He returned. In the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 132, 133), of which this volume is the Appendix, I set out to show that the passion of the Cross being believed to have been Redemption itself, is a fundamental error of the present Christian Church; and that this error, together with the error concerning three Divine Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole Church to such an extent that not a vestige of spirituality remains in it. This will also be further shown in the following pages; and, that these two falsities and delusions have been comparatively like mating butterflies flying about in a garden, which produce the eggs whence are hatched the caterpillars which entirely consume the opening leaves of the trees therein; and further, that they have been like the quails from the sea sent down upon the camp of the Israelites, owing to which, while they were eating, a great plague fell upon the people; and this because they loathed and spurned the manna from heaven, by which, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord (Num. 11:5-6, 32-35; and John 6:31-32, 49-51, 58). And, further, these two errors have been like two drops of black paint, or shoemaker's blacking, dropped into generous wine, and shaken about in the wine-glass; in consequence of which all the brightness, delightful fragrance and fine flavour of the wine are changed into blackness, stench and nauseousness.

133. This idea of God and redemption has reduced the whole of theology from the spiritual to the lowest natural level, by attributing to God purely natural properties. Yet everything in the church depends upon the idea of God, and the idea of redemption, which makes one with salvation. For that idea is like the head which controls all actions in the body. So long as it is spiritual, everything in the church becomes spiritual too, and as long as it is natural, everything in the church becomes natural too. Therefore, since the ideas of God and redemption have become purely natural, that is, under the influence of the bodily senses, everything too is purely natural which the heads and members of the church have made traditional in their statements of dogma. The reason why this can produce nothing but falsity is that the natural man is continually acting in opposition to the spiritual, and so looks upon spiritual things as ghosts and illusions in the air. So it can be said that that sensual idea of redemption, and thus of God, has rendered the roads to heaven, leading to the Lord God the Saviour, beset by thieves and robbers (John 10:1, 8-9); and that the doors of the temples have been thrown down, allowing dragons, owls, tziim and iyim ¹ to come in and howl in discordant chorus.

[2] It is well known that this idea about redemption and God has been foisted into present-day faith. This prescribes that one should pray to God the Father to forgive sins on account of the crucifixion and the shedding of His Son's blood, and to God the Son to pray and intercede for one, and to God the Holy Spirit to make one righteous and sanctified. What else is this but praying to three Gods, one after the other? How then can one think of the rule of God except in terms of aristocratic or hierarchical rule, or as it were a triumvirate such as there once was at Rome, only that instead of a triumvirate it should be called a triumpersonate? ² What then is easier for the devil than, as the saying goes, to divide and rule - that is to destroy unanimity and stir up rebellious movements, at one time against one God, at others against another, as has actually happened from the time of Arius ³ down to the present? And thus to dethrone the Lord God the Saviour, who has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and enthrone instead one of one's own supporters and give him worship, or, because it is taken away from him, to take away worship from the Lord Himself.

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