24. (v) THE PLURALITY OF GODS IN ANCIENT TIMES, AS WELL AS TODAY, WAS ENTIRELY THE RESULT OF A FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE DIVINE BEING.

It was shown above (8) that the oneness of God is inwardly impressed upon the mind of every person, since this idea forms the core of all the influences from God which affect the soul of man. But the reason why it has failed to come down into men's understanding is the lack of the pieces of knowledge which a person should have to enable him to climb up to meet God. For everyone needs to prepare the way for God, that is, to prepare himself to receive God, and pieces of knowledge are the means to this end. The following are the missing pieces of knowledge which prevent the understanding from penetrating to the point at which it can see that God is one and there can only be a single Divine Being, who is the source of all natural phenomena.

(1) The fact that no one up to now has known anything about the spiritual world, the home of spirits and angels, and the place where every person comes after death.

(2) Equally, that the spiritual world possesses a sun, which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in its midst.

(3) That from that sun radiate heat, which is in essence love, and light, which is in essence wisdom.

(4) That as a result everything in that world is spiritual, working on the internal man and making up his will and understanding.

(5) That Jehovah God has given rise by this sun of His not only to the spiritual world and all the innumerable spiritual and substantial things in it, but also to the natural world with all the innumerable natural things in it, which are composed of matter.

(6) That up to now no one has known the difference between the spiritual and the natural, nor what the spiritual is in essence.

(7) Nor that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, which form the basis of the arrangement of the heavens of angels.

(8) That the human mind is divided into the same number of degrees, to enable it after death to be lifted into one of the three heavens, depending upon the way a person has lived and at the same time what he has believed.

(9) And finally that not a jot of all this could have come into being except from the Divine Being which is God in itself, and thus the first principle and beginning from which everything comes. These pieces of knowledge have up to now been missing, yet it is through them that a person must climb up and get to know the Divine Being.

[2] We say that a person climbs up, but it must be understood that it is God who lifts him up. A person has a free choice in acquiring knowledge; and he seems to get this for himself from the Word by means of the understanding, and thus smooths the path for God to come down and lift him up. The pieces of knowledge which enable the human understanding to climb, while God holds it in His hand and guides it, can be compared to the steps of the ladder seen by Jacob, which was set up on earth so that its top reached heaven and angels climbed up by means of it, and Jehovah stood above it (Genesis 28:12-13).

It is quite different when those pieces of knowledge are lacking, or a person treats them with contempt. Then the lifting of the understanding can be compared to a ladder erected from the ground to a first floor window of a magnificent palace, where men live, but not to the second floor windows where the spirits are, much less to the third floor windows where the angels are. The result is that such a person cannot escape from the atmospheres and material objects of the natural world, which occupy his eyes, ears and nose. From these he cannot help acquiring atmospheric and material ideas about heaven and the Being and Essence of God. Thought along these lines does not allow a person to make up his mind at all about God, whether He exists or not, or whether there is one God or several; much less, what His Being and Essence are like. It was this which led to the plurality of gods in ancient times, and still does to-day.

8. (ii) THERE IS A GENERAL FEELING EMANATING FROM GOD AND FLOWING INTO MEN'S SOULS THAT THERE IS A GOD, AND THAT HE IS ONE.

God influences man, as is evident from what everyone admits, that God is the source of every good thing which is good in itself and is present in man and done by him. The same is true of the whole of charity and the whole of faith. For we read:

A man cannot take anything unless it is given him from heaven, John 3:27.

and Jesus said:

Without me you can do nothing, John 15:5.

That is to say, nothing of charity and nothing of faith. The reason there is this inflow into the souls of men is that the soul is man's inmost and highest part; the Divine influence enters there and from there descends to the lower parts, giving them life so far as it is accepted. Admittedly the truths destined to create faith are received through the hearing and are thus implanted in the mind, that is, at a lower level than the soul. But these truths only create the conditions which allow a man to be acted upon by God through his soul. The extent to which truths are accepted depends upon this conditioning, and his natural faith is in proportion transformed into a spiritual faith.

[2] The reason why there is a feeling that God is one emanating from God and entering men's souls is that everything Divine, both understood universally and in particular, is God; and because everything Divine holds together as a single unit, it must inevitably inspire a person with the idea of one God. This feeling is strengthened day by day, as a person is lifted by God into the light of heaven. For angels, in the light they enjoy, cannot force themselves to say 'Gods'. For this reason too when they are speaking the end of every sentence finishes on a single note. This is entirely due to this feeling that God is one entering their souls.

[3] Although all human beings have this idea of God being one entering their souls, still many of them think that His Divinity is divided into several of the same essence. This is because the inflowing idea as it descends slips into forms which do not match it, and the form itself imposes a variation, just as happens in everything which belongs to the three kingdoms of the natural world. It is the same God who gives life to every animal as to man; but it is the receiving form which determines that an animal is an animal, and a man a man. The same thing can happen to a man, when he gives his mind the form of an animal. Every tree receives the same radiation from the sun, but its results vary depending upon the form of each tree. The radiation falling on a vine is the same as that on a thorn-tree; but if the thorn is grafted on to the vine, the radiation is upset and produces effects dictated by the thorn.

[4] The same happens in the mineral kingdom. The light striking a piece of limestone is the same as that striking a diamond; but in one case it shines through, and in the other it is blacked out. Human minds undergo variation depending on their forms, and these are inwardly spiritual in proportion to their faith in God, and at the same time the amount of life they receive from God. Faith in one God makes them transparent and angelic; but instead they become opaque and bestial as the result of faith in several gods, which is hardly to be distinguished from faith in no God.