True Christian Religion #380
380. (ii) Spurious faith is any faith which departs from the true and only faith, and is possessed by those who climb up another way and look upon the Lord not as God, but merely as a human being.
It is self-evident that spurious faith is any faith which departs from the true and only faith; for when one faith is the truth, it follows that anything that departs from it is not the truth. All good and truth in the church spring from the marriage between the Lord and the church. Thus everything which is in essence charity, or which is in essence faith, is the product of that marriage. But anything in charity and faith which is not the product of that marriage is not from a legitimate union but an illegitimate one. Thus it is the product either of a polygamous marriage or union, or of adultery. Any faith is the product of polygamy, if it acknowledges the Lord and espouses the falsities contained in heresies; a faith is the product of adultery, if it acknowledges three Lords in one church. For it is like a woman who is a prostitute, or one married to one man, but hiring herself out for the night to two others, each of whom she calls her husband when she sleeps with him. This is the reason their faiths are called spurious.
The Lord calls these people in many passages 'adulterers', and this too is what He means by 'thieves and robbers' in John:
Truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up another way, is a thief and robber. I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, John 10:1, 9.
Entering the sheepfold is entering the church, and also heaven. It entails entering heaven too, because they make one, and it is nothing but the presence of the church in it which makes heaven. Therefore just as the Lord is the bridegroom and husband of the church, so too is He the bridegroom and husband of heaven.
[2] It is possible to investigate and recognise whether a faith is a legitimate offspring or an illegitimate one by using the three indicators described above. These are the acknowledgment of the Lord as the Son of God, the acknowledgment of Him as the God of heaven and earth, and the acknowledgment that He is one with the Father. Therefore in so far as any faith departs from these essentials, so far is it a spurious faith. There is a spurious and adulterous faith with those who look on the Lord not as God, but as merely a man. The truth of this is evident from the two unspeakable heresies, those of the Arians and the Socinians, which were made anathema in the Christian church and excommunicated from it. This was because they deny the divinity of the Lord, and climb up another way. But I am afraid that these abominations lurk hidden in the general attitude of the people in the church to-day. It is an astonishing fact that the more anyone believes himself to excel others in learning and judgment, the more prone he is to seize on and make his own ideas about the Lord being a human being and not God, arguing that because He is a human being He cannot be God. Anyone who makes those ideas his own betakes himself to the company of the Arians and Socinians, who in the spiritual world are in hell.
[3] The reason why this is the general attitude of people in the church today is that every person possesses a companion spirit. Without him the person could not think analytically, rationally and spiritually, so that he would not be a human being, but an animal. And each person attracts a spirit who resembles him in the affection of his will and thus the perception of his understanding. If someone brings himself into good affections by means of truths taken from the Word and by living in accordance with them, the companion assigned him is an angel from heaven. But if someone brings himself into evil affections by proving falsities to himself and living a wicked life, the companion assigned to him is a spirit from hell. Once so assigned, the person enters more and more into a kind of brotherhood with satans, and then strengthens more and more his belief in falsities in opposition to the truths in the Word, and in the abominable Arian and Socinian attacks on the Lord. The reason is that all satans cannot bear to hear any truth from the Word, or even the name of Jesus; if they do hear them, they become like furies, running about blaspheming. Then if light floods in from heaven, they throw themselves headlong into caves and the thick darkness they love; in this they enjoy the kind of light that owls do in the dark, and like that enjoyed by cats hunting mice in cellars. This is the fate after death of all who in their heart and faith deny the divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word; and this is the nature of their internal man, however much the external puts on an act and plays the role of a Christian. I know this is the case, because of what I have seen and heard.
[4] All who honour the Lord as Redeemer and Saviour merely with their mouth and lips, while in their heart and spirit they look upon Him as purely a human being, when they utter and teach such ideas have a mouth like a skinful of honey, but a heart like a skinful of gall. Their words are like sugared loaves, but their thoughts are like poisoned draughts of wine, or like curlicues of cake containing flying serpents. 1 If they are priests, they are like pirates at sea who fly the flag of a country which is not hostile, but when a passing ship approaches them as friends, they hoist the pirate flag instead of the former one, and seize the ship and make prisoners those on board. They are also like the serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, who come up to one in the guise of angels of light, holding in their hand apples from it coloured with golden tints as if they had been plucked from the tree of life, offering them with the words:
God knows that on the day you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil, Genesis 3:5.
When they have eaten, they follow the serpent down to the underworld and live with him. Around that underworld are the satans who have eaten the apples of Arius and Socinus. It is they too who are meant by the man who went in not wearing a wedding garment, and who was cast into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-13). The wedding garment is faith in the Lord as the Son of God, the God of heaven and earth, and one with the Father. Those who honour the Lord merely with their mouth and lips, but in their heart and spirit look upon Him purely as a human being, if they reveal their thoughts and persuade others, are spiritual murderers, and the worst of them are spiritual cannibals. A person's life comes from his love and faith in the Lord; but if this essential of faith and love, the belief that the Lord is God-man and Man-god, is taken away, his life is turned into death. So in this way the person is killed and devoured like a lamb by a wolf.
Footnotes:
1. This and the previous sentence are given rhetorical point by verbal assonances in Latin, which cannot be reproduced in English.
Matthew 23
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Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
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saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.
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All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.
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For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
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But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
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and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
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the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.
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But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
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Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
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Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
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But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
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Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
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"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
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"Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'
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You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
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'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?'
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You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
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He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
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He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living in it.
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He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
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You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
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You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
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Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
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"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
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and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
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Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
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Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
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You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
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Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
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that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
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Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
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"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
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Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
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For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"
