306. The trinity exists within the Lord. Christians in the other life have been examined to see what kind of concept of the oneness of God they had, and it has been found that they have a concept of three gods: 2329, 5256, 10736, 10737, 10738, 10821. It is possible for us to form a concept of a divine trinity within one person and therefore an idea that there is one God; if we are thinking there are three persons, though, it is not possible for us to form an idea of one God: 10738, 10821, 10824. The trinity within one person (therefore within the Lord) consists of the divinity itself that is called the Father, the divine-human nature that is called the Son, and the emanating divine influence that is called the Holy Spirit; the trinity is therefore a unity: 2149, 2156, 2288, 2321, 2329, 2447, 3704, 6993, 7182, 10738, 10822, 10823. The divine trinity that exists within the Lord is acknowledged in heaven: 14, 15, 1729, 2004, 5256, 9303. The Lord is one with the Father, so he is both the divinity itself and the divine humanity: 1729, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2751, 3704, 3736, 4766. His emanating divine influence is also his divinity in heaven, which is called the Holy Spirit: 3969, 4673, 6788, 6993, 7499, 8127, 8302, 9199, 9229, 9407, 9818, 9820, 10330. So the Lord is the one and only God: 1607, 2149, 2156, 2329, 2447, 2751, 3194, 3704, 3712, 3938, 4577, 4687, 5321, 6280, 6371, 6849, 6993, 7014, 7091, 7182, 7209, 8241, 8724, 8760, 8864, 8865, 9194, 9303.

10737. Then they were asked what kind of idea they themselves had of God. They replied that they did not conceive of Him as an invisible God but as a visible God in human form, and that they knew Him in this way as a result not only of inner perception but also of His having appeared to them as a human being. They added that if they were to conceive of God as one who was invisible, in the way that some of those who had come to them did, including the preacher, they could have no thought at all of God, since no idea can be formed in the mind of something which is invisible. I realized that this was so because to them anything invisible was lacking in form and so had no specific quality, and any idea which lacks these either melts away or descends to the level of things visible in the natural order. Having heard all this I was led to say to them that they did right to think of God in human form, and that many from our planet thought of Him in a similar way, especially when they thought of the Lord, and that the ancients had thought of Him in no other way. I told them then about Abraham, Lot, Gideon, and Manoah and his wife, and what is mentioned in our Word regarding them, namely that these people saw God in human form, and when they saw Him they acknowledged Him to be the Creator of all things, and called Him Jehovah. I said that they also acknowledged Him to be such from an inner perception; but at the present day that perception has perished in the Christian world and remains only with simple believers.