83. The idea that it was some eternally begotten Son who came down and took on a human manifestation turns out to be utterly wrong, collapses, and vanishes in the face of passages in the Word like the following, where Jehovah himself says that he is the Savior and Redeemer:

Am not I Jehovah? And there is no other God except me. I am a just God, and there is no Savior except me. (Isaiah 45:21-22)

I am Jehovah, and there is no Savior except me. (Isaiah 43:11)

I am Jehovah, your God, and you are not to acknowledge a God except me. There is no Savior except me. (Hosea 13:4)

So that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer. (Isaiah 49:26; 60:16)

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth is his name. (Isaiah 47:4)

Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah Sabaoth is his name. (Jeremiah 50:34)

Jehovah, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)

Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am Jehovah, your God. " (Isaiah 48:17; 43:14; 49:7)

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer: "I, Jehovah, am the maker of all things. I alone [stretch out the heavens. I extend the earth] by myself. " (Isaiah 44:24)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and its Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth: "I am the First and the Last, and there is no God except me. " (Isaiah 44:6)

You, Jehovah, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

"With the compassion of eternity I will have mercy. " So says your Redeemer, Jehovah. (Isaiah 54:8)

You have redeemed me, Jehovah of truth. (Psalms 31:6)

Israel should hope in Jehovah, because with Jehovah there is compassion; with him there is the most redemption. He will redeem Israel from all its forms of wickedness. ()

Jehovah God and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will be called God of all the earth. (Isaiah 54:5)

From these passages and very many others, all who have eyes and open minds can see that God, who is one, came down and became human for the purpose of redeeming people. Anyone who pays attention to the divine sayings just quoted can see this as clearly as something in the morning light.

There are people, though, who are in the dark of night because they have convinced themselves that there was another god, eternally begotten, who came down and redeemed humankind. These people close their eyes to these divine sayings, and consider with eyes shut how to twist the sayings and apply them to their false beliefs.

828. Love to the Lord, in which love are the angels that are in the third heaven, has been treated of above; it now remains to say something about the love towards the neighbor with those angels. By the "neighbor" they mean uses, which indeed ¹ are works; but with those angels uses are all things that are done with them from the Lord, and these have relation especially to the worship of the Lord, to His church, to the implantation of its holy things, especially with little children, with whom they have conjunction, and whom they inspire with innocence and its affections; also to the good of society in general and also in particular. These are the things that chiefly belong to their love, because they belong to the Lord's love. The Lord operates these things with them by means of the love that is implanted in their life, which is such that they perceive in these things the delight of their life. Such things are the neighbor to them, because they do not regard persons, but such things as are with persons; for they have more wisdom than other angels, and it is wisdom to regard others from such things as are with them and which constitute them. For every angel, spirit, and man is his love and his affection, thus his good and his truth therefrom; and as these are what constitute them, and as they are wise, they must needs regard others according to what constitutes them. This to them is the neighbor, or the brother and companion, which are often mentioned in the Word, "brother" meaning to them good, and "companion" truth. Thence it is clear what love towards the neighbor is in the third heaven.

[2] As to the other things that relate to moral, civil, and domestic life, these, too, are works done by them from affection, but they are not such works as they mean by "neighbor," or "brother and companion;" for they derive somewhat from the world, and also from what is useful to themselves and their own. These works are derivations and productions of the uses before mentioned, and are such things as proceed from their thought, therefore they can discourse about them. These works keep the life of their body in such a state that the life of their love can dwell in it and perform its uses. These angels, being such, do not know what is meant by charity, or what is meant by faith; but they have the love of good in place of charity, and the love of truth in place of faith. Moreover, they are continually in the love of good and truth because their life is the affection of good, in which and from which is the perception of truth. When, therefore, charity from which is faith, or faith which is from charity, is mentioned, they do not know what is meant. As the angels of the third heaven are such they appear before the angels of the lower heavens like infants, some like boys, and all of them, as it were simple; moreover, they go naked. They appear like infants and like boys because they are in innocence; and love to the Lord from the Lord is innocence; and this is also why infants and boys signify in the Word innocence and also love to the Lord.

[3] They appear simple because they cannot talk about the holy things of heaven and the church; for with them these things are not in the memory, from which all speech comes, but in the life; and from that in the understanding, not as thought but as the affection of good in its form, which does not descend into speech; and if it were to descend it would not be spoken, but only sounded; and those who cannot speak about such things appear to themselves and others as if simple. A further reason is that they are in humility of heart, knowing that wisdom consists in perceiving that the things in which they are wise are scarcely anything in comparison with the things in which they are not wise. They go naked because "nakedness" means in the spiritual sense innocence, and because "garments" signify truths clothing good, and the truths that clothe are in the memory, and from that in the thought; while with them truths are in the life, that is, are hidden, and manifest themselves only before the perception when others are uttering them, or their ministers are preaching them from the Word. Again, they are perfected by the conversation of those who are in the understanding of truth, and by preachings, and also by books. And they write not by letters, like the other angels, but by curves and inflexions that contain arcana that transcend the understanding of the angels in the lower heavens. Furthermore, they dwell in expanses above the others, and in gardens there in which there are shrubberies and beds of flowers, and thus they are in perpetual representatives of heavenly things; and what is wonderful, not a stone is found there; because "stone" signifies natural truth, while "wood" signifies good; a "tree" perception, and a "flower" implantation. Thus much respecting love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, that is, respecting celestial love. Hereafter spiritual love shall be described, also charity and faith.

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