490. "And I will give power to my two witnesses." (11:3) This symbolizes those people who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine, and who are conjoined with Him by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments.

These are the people meant here by the two witnesses because these two characteristics are the two essential elements of the New Church.

Regarding the first essential, that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine - that this is a testimony, and therefore that those people are witnesses who confess and acknowledge this from the heart, may be seen in nos. 6 and 846, and still further from the following:

I am your fellow servant... of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus... For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)

(Michael's angels) overcame (the dragon) by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of His testimony... And the dragon... went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:11, 17)

...the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God... (Revelation 20:4)

These are people who have acknowledged the Lord.

The testimony is called the testimony of Jesus because the Lord attests to it on the authority of His Word, thus on the authority of Himself. Therefore He is called the faithful and true witness (Revelation 1:5; 3:14); and He says,

...I testify of Myself, (and) My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going. (John 8:14)

Also,

When the Counselor comes..., the spirit of truth..., it will testify of Me. (John 15:26)

The Counselor, the spirit of truth, which is also the Holy Spirit, is an emanating Divinity, and this is the Lord Himself, as may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 46-54.

Now because the Lord Himself is the witness, therefore witnesses also mean people who bear the same testimony on behalf of the Lord, as in John:

(Jesus said,) "You have sent to John, and he was a witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man... (John 5:33-34)

(John) came as testimony, to testify concerning the light... He was not that light, but was sent to testify concerning the light. (The Word that was with God, and was God,) was the true light... (John 1:1-2ff.; see also 1:14, 1:34)

[2] Regarding the second essential of the New Church, namely conjunction with the Lord by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments - that this is a testimony is apparent from the fact that the Ten Commandments are called a testimony, as in the following:

You shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you. (Exodus 25:16)

...the Testimony...(Moses) put into the ark... (Exodus 40:20)

...the mercy seat that is upon the Testimony... (Leviticus 16:13)

(Leave the rods of the tribes) before the Testimony... (Numbers 17:4)

And so, too, elsewhere, as in Exodus 25:22; 31:7, 18; 32:15, Psalms 78:5; 132:12.

[3] We will say something here regarding conjunction with the Lord by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments:

There are two tables on which these commandments were written, one for the Lord and one for mankind. The contents of the first table declare that several gods are not to be worshiped, but only one. The contents of the second table declare that evils are not to be done. When one God is worshiped and people do not do evils, conjunction takes place. For in the measure that a person desists from evils, that is, in the measure that he repents, he is in the same measure accepted by God and does good from God.

But who, now, is the one God? A trinal or triune God is not one God when the trine or trinity exists in three persons. But a God who has a trine or trinity in one person is one God, and that God is the Lord. Weave your ideas as you may, you still will not extricate from the tangle the existence of one God unless He is also one in person.

The fact of this is something the whole Word teaches, both the Old Prophetic Word and the New Apostolic Word, as may be clearly seen from The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

46. The Holy Spirit Is the Divinity Emanating from the Lord, and It Is the Lord Himself

Jesus said in Matthew:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the completion of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

We have already shown that the Divine called the Father and the Divine called the Son are united in the Lord. Now, therefore, we must show that the Holy Spirit is identical with the Lord.

[2] The Lord told His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because there is a trine or trinity in the Lord. For there is the Divinity called the Father, the Divine humanity called the Son, and the emanating Divinity called the Holy Spirit. The Divine called the Father and the Divinity called the Son are the originating Divinity, and the emanating Divinity called the Holy Spirit is the instrumental Divinity.

That no other Divinity emanates from the Lord than the Divinity which is Himself is something that will be seen in short works to come regarding Divine providence and Divine omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, for it entails a deeper investigation.

[3] That there is a trine in the Lord may be illustrated by comparison with an angel. An angel has a soul and a body, and also something emanating. That which emanates from him is himself beyond his person. (I have been given to know much about this emanation, but this is not the place to present it.)

[4] Everyone who looks to God is, after death, first taught by angels that the Holy Spirit is not someone different from the Lord, and that to emit and emanate means nothing else than to enlighten and teach by His presence, which depends on a person’s reception of the Lord. Most people after death accordingly put away the concept they had formed in the world regarding the Holy Spirit, and accept instead the view that the Holy Spirit is the Lord’s presence in a person by means of angels and spirits, by which and in accordance with which a person is enlightened and taught.

[5] Furthermore, the Word customarily refers to the Divine by two names, and sometimes three, which nevertheless constitute one Divine. So we find, for example, Jehovah and God, Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel, Jehovah and the Mighty One of Jacob, and God and the Lamb. Because these are one and the same, we are also told in other places that Jehovah alone is God, that Jehovah alone is holy, and that He is the Holy One of Israel, and no other besides Him. We find also that instead of God He is sometimes called a Lamb, and instead of a Lamb, sometimes God — the first in the Prophets, the second in the book of Revelation.

[6] That the Lord alone is meant by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:19 is apparent from the verses that precede and follow there. In the preceding verse the Lord says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” And in the following verse He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the completion of the age, ” thus speaking of Himself alone. He spoke, therefore, as He did in order that His disciples might know that He had in Him a trinity.

[7] For it to be known that the Holy Spirit is not some other Divinity than the Lord Himself, we must show what is meant in the Word by spirit. By spirit is meant the following:

1. A person’s life in general.

2. Because a person’s life varies in accordance with his state, therefore by spirit is meant the life’s varying affection in a person.

3. It is also the life of a regenerate person, the life called spiritual life.

4. Whenever the term spirit is applied to the Lord, however, it means His Divine life, thus the Lord Himself.

5. In particular it means the life of His wisdom, which is called Divine truth.

6. Jehovah Himself, that is, the Lord, spoke the Word through the prophets.