1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

176. How can one trust Councils, when they do not directly approach the God of the church? Is not the church the Lord's body, and is He not its head? What use is a body without a head? And what sort of body is it that has three heads on it, under the guidance of which they debate and pass decrees? Surely then enlightenment, which, coming from the Lord alone, who is God of heaven and the church and at the same time God of the Word, is spiritual, becomes more and more natural until it finally reaches the level of the senses. Then it cannot scent out any real theological truth in its inward form without it being instantly expelled from the thinking of the rational understanding, like chaff being scattered to the winds from a winnowing shovel. In that state fallacies then take the place of truths and darkness the place of light rays. Then these people stand as it were in a cavern with spectacles on their noses, candle in hand, and keep their eyelids shut against spiritual truths illuminated by heavenly light, and open them to sense impressions illuminated by the deceptive light of the bodily senses. What happens when the Word is read is much the same; the mind then goes to sleep confronted with truths, and is wide awake confronted with falsities, becoming like the description of the beast from the sea, 'its mouth like a lion's, its body like a leopard's, and its feet like a bear's' (Revelation 13:2).

[2] It is said in heaven that when the Council of Nicaea finished its work, there took place simultaneously the things the Lord foretold to the disciples:

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, Matthew 24:29.

In fact the Apostolic church was like a new star appearing in the starry sky; but the church after the two Nicene Councils became like the same star later dimming and vanishing, an event recorded a number of times in the natural world according to astronomical observations. We read in the Word that 'Jehovah God dwells in inaccessible light' [1 Timothy 6:16]. So who could approach Him, did He not dwell in accessible light, that is, had He not come down, taken upon Himself human form, and in this become the Light of the World (John 1:9; 12:46)? Can anyone fail to see that approaching God the Father in His light is as impossible as taking the wings of the morning and using them to fly to the sun? Or living on sunlight rather than material food? Or for a bird to fly in the ether, or a stag to run through the air?