Commentary

 

God

  
Ancient of Days, by William Blake

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.

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This video is a product of the New Christian Bible Study Corporation. Follow this link for more information and more explanations - text, pictures, audio files, and videos: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Spiritual Experiences #5606

  
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5606. There are four kinds of people there just as in the world. 1) Those who give their attention to the uses in the Word, and certainly see other things but do not give attention to them. They serve as a plane [for reception]. It is read in this way by heavenly angels. 2) There are those who draw the doctrinal points of the Word from it. Spiritual angels understand the Word in this way. 3) There are those who are delighted only by its holy outward aspect without understanding it. These are those who are in the lowest heaven. 4) And there are those who merely give attention to its literal meaning, and these are those who give attention only to the words there, like the critics and those who write about various things. The former are on the threshold to heaven, the latter are in its very remotest parts.

  
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Thanks to the Academy of the New Church, and Bryn Athyn College, for the permission to use this translation.