11. God is the essential person. Throughout all the heavens, the only concept of God is a concept of a person. The reason is that heaven, overall and regionally, is in a kind of human form, and Divinity among the angels is what makes heaven. Further, thinking proceeds in keeping with heaven's form, so it is not possible for angels to think about God in any other way. This is why all the people on earth who are in touch with heaven think about God in the same way when they are thinking very deeply, or in their spirit.

It is because God is a person that all angels and spirits are perfectly formed people. This is because of heaven's form, which is the same in its largest and its smallest manifestations. (On heaven being in a human form overall and regionally, see Heaven and Hell 59-87 [59-86], and on thought progressing in keeping with heaven's form, see 203-204 there.)

It is common knowledge that we were created in the image and likeness of God because of Genesis 1:26-27 and from the fact that Abraham and others saw God as a person.

The early people, wise and simple alike, thought of God only as a person. Even when they began to worship many gods, as they did in Athens and Rome, they worshiped them as persons. By way of illustration, here is an excerpt from an earlier booklet.

Non-Christians--especially Africans--who acknowledge and worship one God as the Creator of the universe conceive of that God as a person. They say that no one can have any other concept of God. When they hear that many people prefer an image of God as a little cloud in the center, they ask where these people are; and when they are told that these people are among the Christians, they respond that this is impossible. They are told, however, that Christians get this idea from the fact that in the Word God is called a spirit; and the only concept they have of spirit is of a piece of cloud. They do not realize that every spirit and every angel is a person. However, when inquiry was made to find out whether their spiritual concept was the same as their earthly one, it turned out that it was not the same for people who inwardly recognized the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.

I heard one Christian elder say that no one could have a concept of a being both divine and human; and I saw him taken to various non-Christians, more and more profound ones. Then he was taken to their heavens, and finally to a heaven of Christians. Through the whole process people's inner perception of God was communicated to him, and he came to realize that their only concept of God was a concept of a person--which is the same as a concept of a being both divine and human.

6888. 'And this is My memorial from one generation to another means that It is to be worshipped perpetually. This is clear from the meaning of 'memorial' as that which should be called to mind, and - when used in connection with the Divine - as His essential nature called to mind in worship; and from the meaning of 'one generation to another as perpetually. In the Word the expressions 'forever' ¹ and 'to all generations' ¹ are used, sometimes in the same verse. The reason for this is that 'forever' has reference to Divine Good, and 'all generations' to Divine Truth. And the situation is much the same with the meaning of 'memorial' and 'name', in that 'memorial' has reference to the essential nature of the Divine in worship in respect of truth, whereas 'name' has reference to the essential nature of the Divine in worship in respect of them both, of both truth and good, but in particular in respect of good. The fact that 'memorial' means the essential nature of the Divine called to mind in worship is evident from Hosea,

Jehovah is God Zebaoth, Jehovah is His memorial. Turn back therefore in [the strength of] God; maintain godliness and righteousness. Hosea 11:5-6.

This refers to the essential nature of worship that is offered in respect of truth, and therefore the words 'Jehovah is His memorial' are used. In David,

Sing to Jehovah, O saints of His, and acclaim the memorial of His holiness. Psalms 30:4; 97:12.

'Holy' is used in reference to truth, see 6788; thus worship from truth is meant by 'the memorial of His holiness'.

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