50. E SUA VOZ COMO A VOZ DE MUITAS AGUAS significa a Divina Verdade Natural. Que “a voz”, quando vem do Senhor, significa a Divina Verdade vimos acima (n. 37); que as “águas” significam as verdades, e especialmente as verdades naturais, que são os conhecimentos provenientes da Palavra, vê-se em muitas passagens da Palavra, das quais serão mencionadas as seguintes:

“A terra se encherá da ciência de Jehovah como as águas cobrem o mar” (Isaías 11:9)

“Então tirarei águas com alegria das fontes de salvação” (Isaias 12:3)

“Quem anda na justiça e pronuncia coisas retas... o pão lhe será dado e sua água fiel” (Isaías 33:15, 16)

“Os pobres e os necessitados procurando águas, mas nada; sua língua seca de sede; abrirei rios sobre as colinas e porei nascentes no meio dos vaies; tornarei os desertos em lagos de éguas e a terra seca em fontes de água, para que vejam, reconheçam, considerem e compreendam” (Isaías 41:17. 18, 20)

“Derramarei águas sobre o sequioso e regatos sobre o árido, derramarei o Meu Espírito” (Isaías 44:3)

“Tua luz se levantará nas trevas, para que sejas como um Jardim regado e como um manancial, cujas águas não faltarão” (Isaías 58:10, 11)

“Dois males cometeu o Meu povo: deixaram a Mim, fonte das águas vivas, para cavarem para si covas que não retêm as águas” (Jeremias 2:13)

“Os poderosos mandaram os menores buscar águas; estes vieram às covas e não acharam águas; voltaram com os seus vasos vazios” (Jeremias 14:3)

“Abandonaram a fonte das águas vivas: Jehovah” (Jeremias 17:13)

“Com pranto virão e com pranto os conduzirei; levá-los-ei à fonte das águas por um caminho reto” (Jeremias 31 ;9) “Romperei o bastão do pão e eles beberão as águas por medida e com estupor, para que definhem por causa da iniquidade” (Ezequiel 4:16, 17 e 12:18, 19; Isaías 51:14)

“Eis dias virão em que mandarei uma fome sobre a terra; não fome de pão nem sede de água, mas para ouvir as palavras de Jehovah; eles vagarão de mar em mar e correrão daqui para acolá, para ouvirem a palavra de Jehovah e não a encontrarão; nesse dia desfalecerão as virgens e os jovens pela sede” (Amós 8:11, 12, 13)

“Nesse dia, sairão águas vivas de Jerusalém” (Zacarias 14:8) “Jehovah é o meu pastor; levar-me-á para águas tranquilas” (Salmo 23,1, 2)

“Não terão sede; águas da pedra fará correr para eles; ferirá a pedra para que corram as águas” (Isaías 48:21)

“Ó Deus, de manhã Te busco; minha alma tem sede, cansada sem as águas” (Salmo 68:1)

“Jehovah envia a Palavra, faz soprar o vento para que as águas fluam” (Salmo 147:18, 19)

“Louvai Jehovah céus dos céus e águas acima dos céus” (Salmo 148:4)

“Sentado junto à fonte de Jacó, Jesus disse à mulher: Quem beber desta água tornará a ter sede, mas quem beber da água que Eu lhe der não terá sede durante a eternidade, e a água que Eu der se tomar á uma fonte de água jorrando para a vida eterna” (João 4:7-15)

“Jesus disse: Se alguém tiver sede, venha a Mim e beba; quem crer em Mim, como diz a Escritura, de seu ventre fluirão rios de água viva” (João 7:37, 38)

“Ao sedento se dará água da fonte da vida gratuitamente” (Apocalipse 21:6)

“Mostrou-lhe o rio da égua da vida saindo do trono de Deus e do Cordeiro” (Apocalipse 22:1)

“O Espírito e a noiva dizem (vem), e quem ouve diga “vem”, e quem tem sede venha e quem quiser receba a água da vida gratuitamente” (Apocalipse 22:17).

Nessas passagens, por “águas” se entendem verdades, de onde se torna claro que “uma voz de muitas águas” significa a Divina Verdade do Senhor na Palavra, como nas seguintes passagens:

“Eis, a glória do Deus de Israel vem pelo caminho do oriente e a voz d'Ele como a voz de muitas águas, e a terra é iluminada pela glória d'Ele” (Ezequiel 43,2)

“Ouvi uma voz do céu como a voz de muitas águas” (Apocalipse 14:2)

“A voz de Jehovah sobre as águas; Jehovah sobre muitas águas” (Salmo 29:3).

Quando se sabe que, na Palavra, por “águas” são entendidas as verdades no homem natural, pode-se compreender o que é significado por abluções na Igreja Israelita e também o que é significado pelo batismo, bem como o que é significado por estas palavras do Senhor em João:

“Se um homem não for gerado da água e do Espírito, não pode entrar no reino de Deus” (3:5)

“Da água” significa pelas verdades e “do Espírito” significa pela vida segundo as verdades. Que “águas” no sentido oposto significam falsidades, será visto posteriormente.

367. (iv) The person, however, who separates the Lord, charity and faith is not a form which can receive them, but rather one which destroys them.

Anyone who separates the Lord from charity and faith takes away life from them; charity and faith without life either are non-existent or are abortions. The Lord is life itself; see on this 358 above. Anyone who acknowledges the Lord and separates charity from Him, only acknowledges Him with the lips. His acknowledgment and confession are merely cold, lacking any faith; for they lack spiritual essence, since charity is the essence of faith. Anyone, however, who does charitable deeds and fails to acknowledge the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth, one with the Father, as He Himself teaches, can perform only deeds of natural charity, which do not contain everlasting life. People in the church know that all good which is essentially good comes from God, consequently from the Lord, who is the true God and everlasting life (1 John 5:20). The same is true of charity, since good and charity are one.

[2] Faith separated from charity is no faith, because faith is the light of a person's life, and charity is its heat. Therefore, if charity is separated from faith, the result is like separating heat from light. This causes a person's state to resemble the state of the world in winter, when everything above ground dies off. Charity and faith, if they are to be real charity and real faith, can no more be separated than the will and the understanding; if they are separated, the understanding is reduced to nothing, and the will soon follows. It is the same with charity and faith, because charity dwells in the will, and faith in the understanding.

[3] Separating charity from faith is like separating essence from form. The learned world is well aware that essence without form and form without essence are nothing, since essence cannot have any quality except from its form, nor is form any continuing entity except from its essence. Hence nothing can be predicated of either if they are separated one from the other. Charity is also the essence of faith, and faith is the form of charity, precisely as was said before, that good is the essence of truth and truth is the form of good.

[4] These two, good and truth, are in every single thing which comes into existence in essence. Since therefore charity relates to good, and faith to truth, they can be illustrated by comparisons with many features of the human body, and with many phenomena on earth. An exact comparison is with the respiration of the lungs and the systolic motion of the heart; for charity can no more be separated from faith than the heart can from the lungs. For if the heart-beat ceases, the respiration of the lungs ceases at once; and if the respiration of the lungs ceases, total unconsciousness supervenes, and inability to move any muscle, so that shortly afterwards the heart also stops and all trace of life vanishes. This comparison is exact, because the heart corresponds to the will and thus also to charity, and the respiration of the lungs to the understanding and thus also to faith. For, as stated above, charity dwells in the will and faith in the understanding; this and nothing else is the meaning of 'heart' and 'breath' in the Word.

[5] The separation of charity and faith also agrees exactly with the separation of blood and flesh. Blood separated from flesh is gore and turns into rotting blood; and flesh separated from blood becomes progressively rotten and breeds worms. 'Blood' too in the spiritual sense means the truth of wisdom and faith, and 'flesh' means the good of love and of charity. This meaning of blood was demonstrated in my Apocalypse Revealed, 379; and of flesh, 832.

[6] Charity and faith, for one or the other to be anything, can no more be separated than in the human body food and water, or bread and wine. For food or bread taken without water or wine merely distend the stomach and ruin it as undigested lumps, turning into rotting mud. Water or wine without food or bread also distend the stomach, as well as the vessels and passages, which being thus deprived of nutriment cause wasting in the body to the point of death. This comparison too fits, since 'food' and 'bread' in the spiritual sense mean the good of love and of charity, and 'water' and 'wine' mean the truth of wisdom and faith (see Apocalypse Revealed 50, 316, 778, 932),

[7] Charity combined with faith and faith combined in return with charity can be likened to the beauty of a girl's face coming from the mixture of red and white in it. This likeness too is exact, since love and the charity that comes from it in the spiritual world glows red with the fire of the sun there, and truth, and the faith that comes from it, shine white with the light of that sun. Charity separated from faith can therefore be likened to a face inflamed with spots, and faith separated from charity to the colourless face of a corpse. Faith separated from charity can also be likened to a paralysis down one side, known as hemiplegia, which, if it advances, proves fatal. It can also be likened to St Vitus' or Guy's dance, which attacks people bitten by a tarantula. The faculty of reason becomes like this, and like the victim dances madly, believing itself then to be alive, yet it is no more able to assemble rational thoughts together and think about spiritual truths, than when someone is lying in bed in the grip of a nightmare. These remarks are enough to demonstrate the two theses of this chapter, first, that faith without charity is no faith and charity without faith is no charity, and both are lifeless unless the Lord gives them life; and secondly, that the Lord, charity and faith make one, just as in a person life, will and understanding do, and if they are separated, each of them is destroyed, like a pearl collapsing into dust.