33. 6. Every created thing is finite. The Infinite is in finite objects the way something is present in a vessel that receives it; the Infinite is in people the way something is present in an image of itself. Every created thing is finite because Jehovah God [created] all things through the sun of the spiritual world, which most closely surrounds him. That sun is made of a substance that went out from him, the essence of which is love. The universe from beginning to end was created from that sun through its heat and light. This is not the place, however, to lay out the steps of creation in sequence. A rough outline of them will be presented in sections to come [76, 78]. The only point relevant to the current discussion is that things were formed from what went before. As a result, levels were created - three levels in the spiritual world; three corresponding levels in the physical world; and the same number for the inert substances that make up the lands and waters of the world. Information on the origin and nature of those levels was published in Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom (Amsterdam 1763). It was fully laid out in the little work Soul-Body Interaction (published in London, 1769). Because of these levels, all things that came later were vessels for earlier things. These in turn were vessels for things earlier still, which were vessels for the primary substances that constitute the sun of the angelic heaven. This is how finite vessels that could receive the Infinite came about. (This process squares with ancient wisdom: every single thing can be divided without end.)

There is an idea in circulation that finite things are not large enough to hold the Infinite and therefore they could not be vessels for the Infinite. On the contrary, points that I made in my works on creation show that God first made his infinity finite in the form of substances put out from himself. The first sphere that surrounds him consists of those substances, and forms the sun of the spiritual world. By means of that sun, he then completed the remaining spheres even to the farthest one, which consists of inert elements. He increasingly limited the world, then, stage by stage. I lay this out here to appease human reason, which never rests until it knows how something was done.

81. CHAPTER TWO

THE LORD THE REDEEMER

The previous chapter dealt with God the Creator, and at the same time with creation; this chapter will deal with the Lord the Redeemer, and at the same time with redemption. The following chapter will deal with the Holy Spirit, and at the same time with the way God works. By the Lord the Redeemer we understand Jehovah in the Human; for the following pages will prove that Jehovah Himself came down and assumed human form in order to effect redemption. We say 'the Lord' and not 'Jehovah' because the Jehovah of the Old Testament is called the Lord in the New Testament, as can be established from the following passages; we read in Moses:

Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our ¹ God is one Jehovah; you shall love Jehovah God with your whole heart and your whole soul, Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

but in Mark:

The Lord our God is one Lord; you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, Mark 12:29-30.

Also in Isaiah:

Prepare the way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a path for our God, Isaiah 40:3.

but in Luke:

You shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare the way for Him, Luke 1:76.

and in other passages. The Lord too ordered His disciples to call Him Lord, and He was therefore so called by the Apostles in their Epistles, and later by the Apostolic Church. This is plain from its creed, the so-called Apostles' Creed. The reason was that the Jews did not dare to name Jehovah on account of His holiness, and because 'Jehovah' means the Divine Being (Esse), which existed from eternity, while the Human, which He took upon Himself in time, was not that Being. I showed in the previous chapter (18-35) what the Divine Being or Jehovah is. For this reason, here and in what follows by the Lord we understand Jehovah in His Human.

[2] Now since knowledge of the Lord surpasses in excellence all other kinds of knowledge known to the church, or even in heaven, I shall adopt an ordered arrangement to bring that knowledge to light, as follows:

(i) Jehovah, the Creator of the Universe, came down and took upon Himself human form, in order to redeem and save mankind.

(ii) He came down as the Divine Truth, which is the Word, yet He did not separate the Divine Good from it.

(iii) He took upon Himself human form in accordance with His Divine order.

(iv) The Human by which He brought Himself into the world is what is called the Son of God.

(v) The Lord by acts of redemption made Himself righteousness.

(vi) By the same acts He united Himself with the Father, and the Father with Him. This too was in accordance with Divine order.

(vii) Thus God became man, and man God, in one person.

(viii) His progress towards union was His state of exinanition ² , and the union itself is His state of glorification.

(ix) From this time on no one from Christian countries can come into heaven, unless he believes in the Lord God the Saviour, and approaches Him alone.

These propositions will be explained one by one.

Footnotes:

104. (viii) HIS PROGRESS TOWARDS UNION WAS HIS STATE OF EXINANITION, AND THE UNION ITSELF IS HIS STATE OF GLORIFICATION.

It is well known in the church that when the Lord was in the world He underwent two states, which are known as exinanition and glorification. The earlier state, that of exinanition, is described in many passages of the Word, especially in the Psalms of David, and also in the Prophets, in detail in Isaiah chapter 53, where we read that He emptied His soul to the point of death (Isaiah 53:12). This same state is that of His humility before the Father, for in that state He prayed to the Father, and says that He is doing the Father's will, and He ascribes all that He did and said to the Father. His praying to the Father is evident from these passages: Matthew 26:39, 42 ¹ ; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32-39; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 22:41-44; John 17:9, 15, 20. His doing the Father's will: John 4:34; 5:30. His ascribing to the Father all that He did and said: John 8:26-28; 12:49-50; 14:10. Indeed, He cried out on the cross: 'My God, my God, why are you abandoning me?' (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Moreover, if He had not been in this state, He could not have been crucified.

The state of glorification is the state of being united. He was in this state when He was transfigured before His three disciples, and when He performed the miracles, and each time He said that the Father and He were one, that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that all things of the Father's were His. After their complete union He said that He had power over all flesh (John 17:2); and all power in heaven and upon earth (Matthew 28:18), and much besides.

Footnotes: