173. "'These things says He who is holy, who is true.'" This symbolically means the Lord in relation to Divine truth.

Clearly it means the Lord. He who is holy, who is true, is the Lord in relation to Divine truth, because the Lord is called holy owing to His Divine truth, and called just or righteous owing to His Divine goodness. It is in consequence of this that His emanating Divinity - which is Divine truth - is called the Holy Spirit; and here the Holy Spirit is He who is holy, who is true.

[2] Holiness is often mentioned in the Word, and it is everywhere predicated of truth; and because all truth that is true in itself originates from goodness and from the Lord, it is that truth that is called holy. In contrast, the goodness from which truth originates is called just or righteous. It is owing to this that angels governed by truths of wisdom, called spiritual angels, are termed holy, while angels governed by the goodness of love, called celestial angels, are termed just or righteous. The same is the case with people in the church.

It is because of this also that prophets and apostles are called saints, or holy, for prophets and apostles symbolize the church's doctrinal truths.

It is because of this, too, that the Word is called holy, for the Word is Divine truth. That is why the Law in the ark in the Tabernacle was called the most holy place and also the sanctuary.

That, too, is why Jerusalem is called holy, for Jerusalem symbolizes a church which possesses Divine truths.

For the same reason the altar, the Tabernacle, and the garments of Aaron and his sons were called holy after they were anointed with oil; for oil symbolizes the goodness of love, and this sanctifies or makes a thing holy, and everything made holy relates to truth.

[3] From the following passages it is apparent that the Lord alone is holy, because He is Divine truth itself:

Who shall not... O Lord..., glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. (Revelation 15:4)

...your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called. (Isaiah 54:5)

Thus said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One... (Isaiah 49:7)

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 47:4)

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel... (Isaiah 43:14)

...in that day... they will depend on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. (Isaiah 10:20)

And also elsewhere, as Isaiah 1:4; 5:19; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11-12; 41:16; 45:11, 15; 48:17; 55:5; 60:9, Jeremiah 50:29, Daniel 4:13, 23, Psalms 78:41.

Since the Lord is holiness itself, therefore the angel said to Mary,

...the holy thing that will be born of you shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

And regarding Himself the Lord said,

(Father,) sanctify them with the truth. Your word is truth... ...for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified with truth. (John 17:17, 19)

[4] It is apparent from this that the truth that comes from the Lord is holiness itself, because He alone is holy - concerning which the Lord says the following:

When... the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. ...He will not speak on His own... ...He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit..., He will teach you all things... (John 14:26)

To be shown that the Holy Spirit is the life in the Lord's wisdom, thus Divine truth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 51.

It can be seen from this that He who is holy, who is true, is the Lord in relation to Divine truth.

That holiness is predicated of truth, and justice or righteousness of goodness, is apparent from passages in the Word where the two are mentioned, as in the following:

He who is just, let him be just still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. (Revelation 22:11)

Just and true are Your ways, O King of saints! (Revelation 15:3)

...to serve Him, in holiness and righteousness. (Luke 1:75)

...Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man... (Mark 6:20)

...the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:8)

257. 4. Strict materialists justify their rejection of divine providence by observing that in many nations where Christianity is accepted, there are people who claim divine power for themselves and want to be worshiped as gods and who call upon the dead. They do actually say that they are not claiming divine power and wanting to be worshiped as gods, but they still say that they can open and close heaven, forgive or bind sins, and essentially save or damn people, and this is strictly divine doing. The only goal of divine providence is our reformation and salvation. This is what it is constantly working for with each one of us. Salvation comes only through belief in the divine nature of the Lord and a trust that he saves us when we live by his commandments.

[2] Can anyone fail to see that this is the Babylon described in the Book of Revelation and the Babel that we find throughout the prophets? We can see that it is the Lucifer of Isaiah 14 if we read verses 4 and 22 of that chapter. It says in verse 4, "You will proclaim this parable about the king of Babel," and goes on to say, "I will cut down the name and remainder of Babel" in verse 22. This makes it very clear that "Babel" there is "Lucifer" when it says, "How have you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, child of the dawn. And you said in your heart, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God and sit on the mountain of the meeting in the northern regions; I will rise above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High'" (verses 12, 13, 14).

It is widely recognized that they call upon the dead and pray for their help. We refer to this as invocation because the practice was established by the Papal Bull that confirmed the decisions of the Council of Trent, where it states explicitly that they are to be invoked. Is anyone unaware that we should pray only to God and not to any dead mortal?

[3] Now, though, I need to explain why the Lord let things like this happen. There is no denying that it was for the sake of the goal, our salvation. We know that there is no salvation apart from the Lord; and because this is true, it was vital that the Lord be preached from the Word and that the Christian church be established by this means. This called for leaders who would do this with passion, and the only ones available were people who would preach with the kind of flaming passion that comes from self-love. It was primarily this fire that roused them to proclaim the Lord and preach the Word. It is because their initial state was like this that Lucifer is called "the child of the dawn" in verse 12.

However, once they realized that they could use the holy nature of the Word and the church to gain power, the self-love that had at first roused them to proclaim the Lord broke loose from within and eventually rose to such a height that they transferred all of the Lord's divine power to themselves, leaving nothing unclaimed.

[4] This could not be prevented by the Lord's divine providence, because if it had been, they would have preached that the Lord was not God and that the Word was not holy, and would have become Socinians or Arians, thereby destroying the whole church. The church, though, despite the quality of its leadership, did survive among its subject people. All the people of that religion who turn to the Lord and abstain from evils as sins are saved; so they make up many heavenly communities in the spiritual world. It has also been provided that one of these nations should not accept the yoke of this kind of control, because they regarded the Word as holy. These noble people are the French.

But what has happened?

[5] When self-love has promoted its power all the way to the Lord's throne, has removed him from it and set itself there, then the only thing that can happen is that the other love, the Lucifer, will profane everything that has to do with the Word and the church. To prevent this, the Lord in his divine providence made sure that they would distance themselves from worship of him; invoke the dead by praying to their statues, kissing their bones, and kneeling at their tombs; prohibit the reading of the Word; ascribe holiness to a Mass that ordinary people do not understand; and sell salvation for cash. They were allowed to do this because otherwise they would have profaned the holy nature of the Word and the church. As explained in the preceding section, we cannot profane what is holy unless we know about it.

[6] To prevent the profanation of the Most Holy Supper, it has happened under the Lord's divine providence that they have divided it. They give the bread to the congregation and drink the wine themselves. The wine in the Holy Supper means what is holy and true, while the bread means what is holy and good. When they are separated, the wine means truth profaned and the bread means what is good adulterated. Particularly, they have made the Supper physical and material and focused on it as the primary feature of religion.

Anyone who looks closely at these individual items and weighs them in some mental enlightenment can see the marvelous workings of divine providence in protecting what is holy in the church and in saving everyone who can be saved, virtually snatching from the flames everyone who is willing to be rescued.