7. Letter to Beyer, February 1767

Several questions have been put to me by your friend, to which the following will serve as an answer. ¹

1 My opinion concerning the writings of Boehme and L... ² I have never read them, and I was forbidden to read dogmatic and systematic books in theology before heaven was opened to me, and this for the reason that otherwise unfounded opinions and notions might easily have insinuated themselves, which afterwards could have been removed only with difficulty. When heaven was opened to me I had therefore first to learn the Hebrew language, and also the correspondences of which the whole Bible is composed, and this led me to read through the Word of God many times. And since the Word of God is the source from which all theology must be taken, I was thus enabled to receive instruction from the Lord, who is the Word.

2 How soon a New Church is to be expected. Answer: The Lord is now establishing a new heaven from those who believe in Him and acknowledge Him to be the true God of heaven and earth, and who also look to Him in their lives, which means the shunning of evil and the doing of good; for it is from this heaven that the New Jerusalem is to descend (see Revelation 21:2). Daily I see spirits and angels descending and ascending in numbers from 10 to 20,000 and being arranged in order. In so far as this heaven is formed the New Church will commence and grow. The universities of Christianity are now receiving instruction, and from them new priests will come; for the new heaven holds no sway with the old priests who regard themselves as learned in the justification by faith alone.

3 Concerning the promised transaction on the Infinite, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Answer: These subjects have been interspersed in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE n. 46-54, 157; and in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM n. 4, 1-7, 19, 21, 44, 69, 72, 76, 106, 156, 318; and in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED n. 691; and there will be still more concerning them in the ARCANA OF ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING CONJUGIAL LOVE; for to write separately concerning the Divine attributes would be to raise the thoughts too high without the assistance of anything to support them. For this reason the subjects have been dealt with in series together with other things that fall within the understanding.

I have read through your New Attempts concerning the Gospels with pleasure. The interpretations of the text for the first Sunday in Advent are good. Let me here state the meaning of the manger, of John the Baptist, and of Elijah. The Manger meant instruction from the Word, because mules and horses meant the understanding of the Word, see Apocalypse Revealed n. 298, and their nourishment was in the manger. That there was no room in the inn meant that there was no place of instruction in Jerusalem, on which account it was said to the Shepherds, by whom was meant the Church to be, This shall be a sign to you, that you shall find the Babe lying in a manger, Luke 2:12.

The baptism of John prepared the heavens so that the Jewish people could survive, when God Himself came among them. And John meant every prophecy of the Old Testament concerning the Lord and His advent, as also did Elijah, he being the foremost of the prophets. Since men here are now beginning to think more of charity than before, believing firmly that faith and charity cannot be separated, therefore also faith alone is now also here beginning to be called Herrnhuter Faith. ³

Stockholm

the month of February 1767 ⁴

Footnotes:

69. Divinity fills all space in the universe nonspatially. Nature has two basic properties: space and time. In this physical world, we use them to form the concepts of our thinking and therefore the way we understand things. If we stay engaged with them and do not raise our minds above them, there is no way we can grasp anything spiritual and divine. We entangle such matters in concepts drawn from space and time, and to the extent that we do, the light of our discernment becomes merely earthly. When we use this light to think logically about spiritual and divine matters, it is like using the dark of night to figure out things that can be seen only in the light of day. Materialism comes from this kind of thinking.

However, when we know how to raise our minds above images of thought derived from space and time, we pass from darkness into light and taste things spiritual and divine. Eventually we see what is inherent in them and what they entail; and then we dispel the darkness of earthly lighting with that [new] light and dismiss its illusions from the center to the sides.

People who possess discernment can think on a higher level than these properties of nature--can think realistically, that is--and see with assurance that Divinity, being omnipresent, is not within space. They can also see with assurance the other things already mentioned. If they deny divine omnipresence, though, and attribute everything to nature, then they do not want to be lifted up even though they could be.

318. (4) All forms of use have in them some image of the Infinite and Eternal. An image of the Infinite is visible in these forms from their endeavor and power to fill every interval of space in the entire world and in many other worlds as well to infinity. For a single seed produces a tree, bush, or plant, which occupies its own space. Every tree, bush, or plant then produces more seeds - in some cases several thousand - and when these fall to the ground and sprout, they each occupy their own space. If every one of their seeds, then, were to spawn as many new progeny again and again, within years they would fill the whole world; and if they were to continue still to reproduce, they would fill many more worlds, and this to infinity. Reckon from one seed thousands more, and multiply those thousands by the thousands from them ten times, twenty times, up to a hundred times, and you will see.

An image of the Eternal exists similarly in these forms as well. Seeds are produced anew from year to year, and new productions of them never cease. They have not ceased from the creation of the world to this day, nor will they cease to eternity.

These two characteristics are manifest indications and testifying signs that all constituents of the universe have been created by an infinite and eternal God.

[2] In addition to these images of the Infinite and Eternal, there is a further image of the Infinite and Eternal in the varieties of things and the fact that no substance, state, or object can ever occur in the created universe that is identical to another. Not in the atmospheres, not in the substances of the earth, nor in the forms arising from them, thus not in any of the constituents which fill the universe, can anything identical to another be produced to eternity.

The fact of this is visibly apparent in the variety of facial features among all human beings. No one set of facial features is identical to that of another anywhere in the world, nor can there be to eternity. Consequently neither is any mind the same, of which the face is a reflection.