Arcana Coelestia #624
624. It is clear that a state which is not a state of the Church is the subject here from the fact that in this verse and those that follow in chapter the name God is used, whereas in previous verses it was Jehovah. When the Church does not exist the name God is used, but when it does exist, it is Jehovah; for example in Genesis 1, when the Church did not exist, He was called God, but in the next chapter when it did, He was called Jehovah God. 'Jehovah' is the holiest of names, and belongs to the Church alone. Not so 'God', for no nation was without gods. Consequently the same holiness was not attached to the name God. Nobody was allowed to utter the name Jehovah except him who had knowledge of the true faith; but anyone was allowed to utter the name God.
Arcana Coelestia #10372
10372. 'This is a sign between Me and the children of Israel into an age' means that this is the means by which those who belong to the Church are distinguished from those who do not belong to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sign' as the means by which they are recognized, dealt with above in 10357, and so also by which they are distinguished; and from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as the Church, dealt with in the places referred to in 9340, so that 'a sign between Jehovah and the children of Israel' means that it is the means by which those who belong to the Church are distinguished from those who do not, that is to say, they are distinguished by their acknowledgement of the union of the Divine within the Lord's Human, dealt with above in 10370. The truth that the Church does not exist where the Lord is not acknowledged is also the teaching of the Church itself; and the further truth that within His Human there is the Divine itself is the Lord's own teaching in John,
I and the Father 1 are one. ... you may believe that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father. John 10:30, 38.
In the same gospel,
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? John 14:6-11.
In the same gospel,
Jesus said, The hour has come. Father, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. All Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine. John 17:1, 10.
In the same gospel,
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And God will glorify Him in Himself. John 13:31-32.
And in the same gospel,
If you know Me you know My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. He who has seen Me has seen the Father. John 14:6-11.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin means The Father and I but the Greek means I and the Father, which Swedenborg has in most other places where he quotes this verse.
