123. 7. It is the unceasing effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us to himself and himself to us in order to give us the joys of eternal life; and this can happen only to the extent that our evils and their compulsions are banished. I explained in 27-45 that it is the constant effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us to himself and himself to us, and that this union is what we call reformation and regeneration. I explained also that this is the source of our salvation. Can anyone fail to see that union with the Lord is eternal life and salvation? Everyone can see this who believes that we were originally created in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26-27) and who knows what the image and likeness of God are.

[2] If we are truly rational and use our rationality when we think and use our freedom when we try to think, can any of us believe that there are three gods equal in essence and that the divine Being or divine Essence can be divided? As for a threefold nature in one God, that is something we can conceive and understand, just as we understand the soul and the body of an angel or a person and the life that they bring forth. Further, since this threefold nature in a single Being exists only in the Lord, it follows that any union must be a union with him.

Use your rationality and think freely, and you will see this truth in its own light. First, though, admit that the Lord, heaven, and eternal life are real.

[3] Now, since God is one and since by creation we have been made in his image and likeness, and since we have come into a love for all our evils through our hellish love, its compulsions, and their pleasures, thereby destroying the image and likeness of God within us, it follows that it is the constant effort of the Lord's divine providence to unite us with himself and himself with us and thereby to make us his images. It also follows that the Lord is doing this so that he may give us the bliss of eternal life, since this is the nature of divine love.

[4] The reason he cannot make this gift, cannot make us images of himself, unless we banish sins from our outer self in apparent autonomy is that the Lord is not just divine love but divine wisdom as well; and divine love does nothing unless it stems from divine wisdom and is in accord with it. It is in accord with divine wisdom that we cannot be united to the Lord and thus reformed, regenerated, and saved unless we are allowed to act freely and rationally. This is what makes us human. Anything that is in accord with the Lord's divine wisdom is also in accord with his divine providence.

605. Verses 5-7. And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth unto the ages of the ages, who created heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea, and the things that are therein, that there shall be time no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God shall also be consummated, as he hath declared in good tidings to his servants the prophets.- "And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth," signifies the Lord, to whom all things of heaven and the church are subject; "lifted up his hand to heaven," signifies affirmation before the angels concerning the state of the church; "And sware by him that liveth unto the ages of the ages," signifies truth from his own Divine; "who created heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea, and the things that are therein," signifies the Lord as to all things interior and exterior; "of heaven and the church that there shall be time no longer," signifies that there would be no longer any understanding of Divine Truth, nor any state of the church therefrom. "But in the days [of the voice] of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound," signifies the last state of the church, and then revelation of Divine Truth; "the mystery of God shall also be consummated, as he hath declared in good tidings to his servants the prophets," signifies prediction in the Word concerning the coming of the Lord to be fulfilled when the end of the church is at hand.