638. The apostolic church, which worshiped the Lord God Jesus Christ, and at the same time God the Father in him, can be compared to the garden of God. Arius, who arose then, is like the serpent sent in from hell. The Council of Nicaea is like Adam's wife, who offered fruit to her husband and persuaded him to eat it. After eating the fruit, they appeared naked to themselves, so they covered their nakedness with fig leaves. Their nakedness symbolizes the innocence they had before that point. The fig leaves symbolize the truths belonging to their earthly self, which were falsified more and more.

That early church can also be compared to the twilight before dawn and the early morning, and on through the day until late afternoon. Then dark clouds came up, lasting until evening and continuing into the night. During the night, some places saw the moon rise. Some of the people in those places saw something in the Word in the light of the moon, but the rest continued on into such thick darkness of night that they could no longer see anything of divinity in the Lord's humanity, even though Paul says that "all the fullness of divinity dwells physically in Jesus Christ" (Colossians 2:9), and John says that "the Son of God who was sent into the world is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).

[2] The early or apostolic church could never have guessed that a church was yet to come that would say there is one God but worship three gods at heart; separate goodwill from faith; separate forgiveness of sins from repentance and the effort to lead a new life; and conclude we are completely powerless in spiritual matters. Least of all would they have guessed that some Arius would raise his head, and once dead, would rise again and secretly rule the church to the bitter end.

In the Word three terms are used to refer to bad actions: transgression, iniquity, and sin. Transgression is the least bad. It means a violation of what is true in an external context, a violation of what is right and orderly. Iniquity is next and denotes acts that violate more interior truths. Sin is the worst. It is a violation of what is holy and righteous, a violation against the Lord. Sin is the deepest kind of evil. Regarding iniquity -- to be in charity, or live a life of charity is to live a life where the acts and thoughts that have top priority are those that have within them a love for the neighbor. Sometimes our love of self, our inborn desire to put ourselves first, is stronger than our charity and we do something for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, or even do harm to our neighbor. Such an act, if our motive is selfish, is an iniquity.

(რეკომენდაციები: Arcana Coelestia 9156, 9965 [2-3])