7. Letter to Beyer, February 1767

Several questions have been put to me by your friend, to which the following will serve as an answer. ¹

1 My opinion concerning the writings of Boehme and L... ² I have never read them, and I was forbidden to read dogmatic and systematic books in theology before heaven was opened to me, and this for the reason that otherwise unfounded opinions and notions might easily have insinuated themselves, which afterwards could have been removed only with difficulty. When heaven was opened to me I had therefore first to learn the Hebrew language, and also the correspondences of which the whole Bible is composed, and this led me to read through the Word of God many times. And since the Word of God is the source from which all theology must be taken, I was thus enabled to receive instruction from the Lord, who is the Word.

2 How soon a New Church is to be expected. Answer: The Lord is now establishing a new heaven from those who believe in Him and acknowledge Him to be the true God of heaven and earth, and who also look to Him in their lives, which means the shunning of evil and the doing of good; for it is from this heaven that the New Jerusalem is to descend (see Revelation 21:2). Daily I see spirits and angels descending and ascending in numbers from 10 to 20,000 and being arranged in order. In so far as this heaven is formed the New Church will commence and grow. The universities of Christianity are now receiving instruction, and from them new priests will come; for the new heaven holds no sway with the old priests who regard themselves as learned in the justification by faith alone.

3 Concerning the promised transaction on the Infinite, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Answer: These subjects have been interspersed in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE n. 46-54, 157; and in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM n. 4, 1-7, 19, 21, 44, 69, 72, 76, 106, 156, 318; and in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED n. 691; and there will be still more concerning them in the ARCANA OF ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING CONJUGIAL LOVE; for to write separately concerning the Divine attributes would be to raise the thoughts too high without the assistance of anything to support them. For this reason the subjects have been dealt with in series together with other things that fall within the understanding.

I have read through your New Attempts concerning the Gospels with pleasure. The interpretations of the text for the first Sunday in Advent are good. Let me here state the meaning of the manger, of John the Baptist, and of Elijah. The Manger meant instruction from the Word, because mules and horses meant the understanding of the Word, see Apocalypse Revealed n. 298, and their nourishment was in the manger. That there was no room in the inn meant that there was no place of instruction in Jerusalem, on which account it was said to the Shepherds, by whom was meant the Church to be, This shall be a sign to you, that you shall find the Babe lying in a manger, Luke 2:12.

The baptism of John prepared the heavens so that the Jewish people could survive, when God Himself came among them. And John meant every prophecy of the Old Testament concerning the Lord and His advent, as also did Elijah, he being the foremost of the prophets. Since men here are now beginning to think more of charity than before, believing firmly that faith and charity cannot be separated, therefore also faith alone is now also here beginning to be called Herrnhuter Faith. ³

Stockholm

the month of February 1767 ⁴

Notes de bas de page:

69. Divinity fills all space in the universe nonspatially. Nature has two basic properties: space and time. In this physical world, we use them to form the concepts of our thinking and therefore the way we understand things. If we stay engaged with them and do not raise our minds above them, there is no way we can grasp anything spiritual and divine. We entangle such matters in concepts drawn from space and time, and to the extent that we do, the light of our discernment becomes merely earthly. When we use this light to think logically about spiritual and divine matters, it is like using the dark of night to figure out things that can be seen only in the light of day. Materialism comes from this kind of thinking.

However, when we know how to raise our minds above images of thought derived from space and time, we pass from darkness into light and taste things spiritual and divine. Eventually we see what is inherent in them and what they entail; and then we dispel the darkness of earthly lighting with that [new] light and dismiss its illusions from the center to the sides.

People who possess discernment can think on a higher level than these properties of nature--can think realistically, that is--and see with assurance that Divinity, being omnipresent, is not within space. They can also see with assurance the other things already mentioned. If they deny divine omnipresence, though, and attribute everything to nature, then they do not want to be lifted up even though they could be.

157. The following rational propositions will prove that our life comes from the Lord alone and not from us. (a) There is only one essence, only one substance, and only one form from which have come all the essences, substances, and forms that have been created. (b) The only essence, substance, and form is divine love and divine wisdom, and everything in us that has to do with love and wisdom comes from that source. (c) This is also the goodness itself and the truth itself that underlie everything. (d) These are the life that is the source of the life of everything and of every aspect of life. (e) This single, essential reality is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. (f) This single, essential reality is the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah.

[2] (a) There is only one essence, only one substance, and only one form from which have come all the essences, substances, and forms that have been created. I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom 44-46 and in its part 2 that the sun of the angelic heaven, which comes from the Lord and in which the Lord is present, is the single substance and form that is the source of everything that has been created, and that there neither is nor can be anything that does not come from that source. I explained in part 3 of that work that everything comes from that source by development according to different levels.

[3] Can anyone fail to see and admit on rational grounds that there is only one essence that is the source of all essence, one reality that is the source of all reality? What could become manifest except from some reality, and what is the reality behind all reality except reality itself? And whatever is reality itself is also the only reality, reality in its own right. Since this is the case--and everyone sees and admits it on rational grounds and could see and recognize it if it were not the case--what other conclusion is there than that this reality that is Deity itself, that is Jehovah, is all there is to everything that exists and happens?

[4] This is the same as saying that there is only one substance that underlies everything; and since substance is nothing apart from form, it follows that there is only one form that underlies everything. I have explained in the book just mentioned that the sun of the angelic heaven is that one substance and form, and have explained how that essence, substance, and form come out variously in things created.

[5] (b) The only essence, substance, and form is divine love and divine wisdom, and everything in us that has to do with love and wisdom comes from that source. I have given ample evidence of this in Divine Love and Wisdom as well. Everything about us that seems to be alive involves our volition and our discernment, and everyone sees and admits on rational grounds that these two abilities constitute our life. This is simply saying, "This is what I intend," "This is what I discern," "This is what I love," or "This is what I think"; and since we intend what we love and think about what we discern, all our volition has to do with love and all our discernment has to do with wisdom. Further, since these two abilities cannot occur in any of us from ourselves, only from the one who is love itself and wisdom itself, it follows that this comes from the Lord from eternity or Jehovah. Otherwise, we would be love itself and wisdom itself, we would be God from eternity, and human reason itself recoils from this thought in horror.

Can anything exist except from some prior source, and can this prior source exist except from some source still prior, and so on finally back to a First that simply exists in its own right?

[6] (c) By the same token, this is also the goodness itself and the truth itself that underlie everything. Everyone possessed of reason accepts and admits the fact that God is goodness itself and truth itself and that everything good and true comes from him. In fact, nothing that is good and true can come from any other source than from the one who is goodness itself and truth itself. Every rational individual admits this on first hearing it. If we go on to say that when we are being led by the Lord everything that has to do with our volition and discernment, with our love and wisdom, with our feelings and thoughts, rests in what is good and true, it follows that everything we then intend and think, every exercise of our love and wisdom, everything that moves us or occupies our thoughts, comes from the Lord. This is why everyone in the church knows that everything good and true within us that originates in us is not really good or true, only what comes from the Lord.

Since this is the case, everything that we intend and think under this leading comes from the Lord. We will see later [285-294] that even evil people cannot intend and think from any other source.

[7] (d) These are the life that is the source of the life of everything and of every aspect of life. I have given ample evidence of this in Divine Love and Wisdom. On first hearing, human reason accepts and admits the fact that our whole life is a matter of our intending and its discerning, because if we were deprived of our ability to intend and discern, we would not be alive. This is the same as saying that our whole life is a matter of our love and its thinking, because if we were deprived of our ability to love and to think we would not be alive. Since the Lord is the only source of everything in us that has to do with intent and discernment, or with love and thought, as just noted, it follows that all our life comes from him.

[8] (e) This single, essential reality is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. All Christians know this on the basis of their theology and all non-Christians on the basis of their religions. This is also why all of us think that God is present wherever we happen to be, why we pray to God as present with us; and since we all do think this way while we are praying, it follows that the only way we can think is that God is everywhere, that God is therefore omnipresent. The same holds true for God's omniscience and omnipotence. This is why everyone who prays to God is asking at heart for guidance--because God is able to guide; and this means that we all recognize divine omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. We recognize it because then we are turning our faces toward the Lord, and this truth flows into us from him.

[9] (f) This single, essential reality is the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah. In Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord, I explained that God is one in essence and in person and that this God is the Lord. I also explained that the essential Deity called Jehovah the Father is the Lord from eternity, that the Son conceived by Deity from eternity and born into the world is the Divine-Human One, and that the Holy Spirit is the Deity emanating.

This reality is called "single" and "essential" because it has already been stated that the Lord from eternity or Jehovah is life itself because he is love itself and wisdom itself, or goodness itself and truth itself, the source of everything. I have shown in Divine Love and Wisdom 282-284, 349-357 that the Lord created everything from his own self and not from nothing.

These propositions may serve as rational evidence of the truth that we are led and taught by the Lord alone.