From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christianity #102

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102. There is a belief that the Lord in his human manifestation not only was but still is the Son of Mary. This is a blunder, though, on the part of the Christian world. It is true that he was the Son of Mary; it is not true that he still is. As the Lord carried out the acts of redemption, he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a human nature from his Father. This is how it came about that the Lord's human nature is divine and that in him God is human and a human is God. The fact that he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a divine nature from his father - a divine human nature - can be seen from his never referring to Mary as his mother, as the following passages show: "The mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine. ' Jesus said to her, 'What do I have to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come'" (John 2:4). Elsewhere it says, "Jesus on the cross saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing next to her. He said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son. ' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother'" (John 19:26-27). On one occasion he did not acknowledge her: "There was a message for Jesus from people who said, 'Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to see you. ' Jesus said in reply, 'My mother and my brothers are these people who are hearing the Word of God and doing it'" (Luke 8:20-21; Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35). So the Lord called her "woman," not "mother," and gave her to John to be his mother. In other passages she is called his mother, but not by the Lord himself.

[2] Another piece of supporting evidence is that the Lord did not acknowledge himself to be the son of David. In the Gospels we read,

Jesus asked the Pharisees, saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They say, "David's. " He said to them, "Why then does David in the spirit call him his Lord when he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet?"' If David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one could answer him a word. (Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Psalms 110:1)

[3] Here I will add something previously unknown. On one occasion I was given an opportunity to talk to Mother Mary. She happened past, and I saw her in heaven over my head in white clothing apparently made of silk. Then, stopping for a while, she said that she had been the Lord's mother in the sense that he was born from her, but by the time he became God he had put off everything human that came from her. Therefore she adores him as her God and does not want anyone to see him as her son, because everything in him is divine.

From the points above another truth now becomes manifest: Jehovah is as human in what is first as he is in what is last, as the following passages indicate: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8, 11). When John saw the Son of Humankind in the middle of seven lampstands, he fell at his feet as if dead; but the Son of Humankind laid his right hand on John and said, "I am the First and the Last" (Revelation 1:13, 17; 21:6). "Behold, I am coming quickly to give to all according to their work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last" (Revelation 22:12-13). And in Isaiah, "Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel and its Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth: I am the First and the Last" (Isaiah 44:6; 48:12).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Revelation 1:8

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8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Canons of the New Church #12

  
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12. CHAPTER VIII. GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE

1. God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence do not come within the scope of the human understanding because God's Omnipotence is infinite power, God's Omniscience is infinite wisdom, and Omnipresence is infinite presence in all the things that have gone forth and that do go forth from Him; and indeed the Infinite Divine does not come within the scope of a finite understanding. 1

2. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent is acknowledged without rational investigation; for this flows in from God into the higher part of the human mind, and thence, with all with whom there is religion and sound reason, into acknowledgement. It flows in also with those with whom there is not religion; but with these, there is not reception, and hence not acknowledgement.

3. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, a man can himself confirm from innumerable things that are matters of reason and at the same time of religion, as for instance these that follow:

4. First, God alone is and exists in Himself; and every other being and every other thing is from Him.

5. Second, God alone loves, is wise, and lives and acts from Himself; every other being and every other thing does so from Him.

6. Third, God alone has power from Himself; every other being and every other thing has power from Him.

7. Consequently, God is the soul of the whole, from which all beings and all things are, live, and move.

8. Unless every single thing in the world and in heaven had relation to One who is, lives, and has power from Himself, the universe would be dissipated in a moment.

9. On this account the universe was created by God a fullness of God, wherefore He Himself said that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is, and will be, the Almighty. [Revelation 1:8, 11.]

10. The preservation of the universe which is an unceasing creation is complete evidence that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent.

11. The reason contrary things, which are evils, are not taken away because God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is that evils are extraneous to subjects and created things and so do not penetrate to the Divine things that are within.

12. Of the Divine Providence, which indeed is universal in the very smallest things, evils are removed more and more from the interiors and cast out to the outside, and in this way are conveyed away and separated in order that they should not do any harm to the internal things that are Divine. 2

Footnotes:

1.  In the Skara Manuscript words follow here which Nordenskjold regarded as a marginal note: "All things proceed according to order. God is order."

2. The three following paragraphs are regarded by Nordenskjold as annotations and are not numbered. In the Skara Manuscript the first and second are united as number 13, and the last is numbered as 14.

"There is Divine Omnipotence by means of His Human; this is 'sitting at the right hand' [Mark 14:62; 16:19; Matt. 26:64) and being 'the First and the Last', as is said of the Son of Man in the Revelation [1:8, 11, and it is there said that He is 'the Almighty'. The reason is that God acts from first things by means of the last, and thus holds all things together.

The Lord acts from first things by means of the last things with men; not by means of anything of man's, but by what is His Own in man; in the case of the Jews He acted by means of the Word with them, thus by what was His Own; by it also He performed miracles through Elijah and Elisha; but because the Jews perverted the Word. God Himself came and made Himself 'the Last'; and so then He performed miracles from Himself.

There is an order first created, according to which God may act and therefore God Himself made Himself Order.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.