When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is one, whole and complete in itself, and Jehovah also is one, a name applied only to the Lord. The divine love expresses itself in the form of wisdom. Love, then, is the essence of God -- His inmost. Wisdom -- the loving understanding of how to put love into action -- is slightly more external, giving love a way to express itself. Wisdom, however, is expressed in a great variety of thoughts and ideas, what the Writings collectively call divine truth. There are also many imaginary gods, and sometimes angels and people can be called gods (the Lord said Moses would be as a god to Aaron). So when the Bible calls the Lord "God," it is in most cases referring to divine truth. In other cases, "God" has reference to what is called the divine human. The case there is this: As human beings, we cannot engage the Lord directly as divine love. It is too powerful and too pure. Instead, we have to approach Him by understanding Him through divine truth. Divine truth, then, is the Lord in human form, a form we can approach and understand. Thus "God" is also used in reference to this human aspect, because it is an expression of truth.

391. The fact that people under the influence of falsity and evil are afraid of everybody else can be recognized best of all from evil spirits in the next life. Those who have divested themselves of all charity are wanderers and fugitives. If, wherever they go, they come to any communities, the people there perceive their character the moment they are approaching. The perceptivity existing in the next life is such that these communities not only drive those intruders away, but also punish them severely. Indeed their intention is to kill them if possible. So very great is the pleasure which the evil find in punishing and torturing one another that their greatest delight consists in doing so. And what is an arcanum still, the cause lies in falsity and evil themselves, for what anyone wishes upon another recoils upon himself. In fact falsity and evil carry within themselves the punishment of falsity and evil, and consequently the fear of punishment.