From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christianity #752

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752. After they expressed their gratitude to the preacher, they went back to their rooms. There the angel said to them, "Today is the third day since you came up into this community of heaven. You were prepared by the Lord to be able to be here for three days. Therefore the time has come for us to part. Take off the clothes that were sent to you by the prince, and put on your own clothes. "

When the newcomers were back in their own clothes, they were inspired with a strong desire to leave; so they left and went back down. The angel came with them all the way to the place of the original meeting. There they humbly gave thanks to the Lord for blessing them with knowledge and understanding concerning heavenly joys and eternal happiness.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christianity #23

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23. 4. The intrinsic, underlying divine reality and intrinsic capacity to become manifest cannot produce anything else divine that is intrinsically real and has an intrinsic capacity to become manifest. Therefore another God of the same essence is impossible. Up to this point I have shown that the one God, the Creator of the universe, is the intrinsic underlying reality and capacity to become manifest. Therefore he is intrinsically God. From this it follows that a god from a god is not possible, because such a god would necessarily lack absolute and essential divinity in the form of intrinsic underlying reality and capacity to become manifest. It does not matter whether that god is said to be "born" of God or to emanate from him, he would still be produced by God, which is scarcely different from being created by him.

To introduce into the church the belief that there are three divine persons, each of whom is individually God, although they share a single essence, and to say that one of them was eternally begotten and the third has been having an effect from eternity, is to destroy completely the concept of one God. Along with that it is also to eradicate the whole notion of divinity and to drive all reasoned spirituality into exile. No longer truly human, human beings are becoming earthly in every respect. The only difference between them and wild animals is that they can talk. They are against anything and everything spiritual about the church - the earthly self calls all that delusional.

These hideous heresies about God have poured out of one source alone: the earthly self. Dividing the divine Trinity into persons has brought about not only nighttime in the church, but also death.

[2] The concept of three divine essences that are the same is an offense to reason, as I learned from angels. They said that even pronouncing "three equal divinities" is impossible for them. They said that if someone came to them and tried to say it, that person would automatically turn away. After saying it the person would become like a human log and would be thrown away downward, headed for those in hell who do not acknowledge the existence of any God.

Truly, to implant in toddlers, children, and teenagers the idea of three divine persons - which inevitably entails the idea of three gods - is to take away all their spiritual breast milk, and then all their spiritual solid food, and later on all the spiritual food for their reason, and, in the case of those who convince themselves of that point of view, to cause their spiritual death.

On the one hand, those who direct heartfelt, faithful worship to one God alone as Creator of the universe, and as Redeemer and Regenerator as well, are comparable to the city of Zion in the time of David, and the city of Jerusalem in the time of Solomon after the Temple was built. On the other hand, the church that believes in three persons and views each person as an individual god is like Zion and Jerusalem after they had been destroyed by Vespasian and the Temple there had been burned down.

Those who worship one God in whom there is a divine trinity and who is therefore one person become more and more alive, and become angels on earth. Those, however, who convince themselves to believe in a plurality of gods because there is a plurality of divine persons become more and more like a statue with movable joints, inside which stands Satan, talking through its hinged mouth.

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