The Spiritual Meaning of the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8)

It is true that Jesus came to save the world, that He is God incarnate in human form, who needed to come to this planet to open the way again between heaven and humanity.  The Lord came at the end of the Jewish dispensation, when the Jewish religion was nothing more than a superficial hypocritical religion, where the Jews regarded themselves as superior to others and only expected a Messiah that would allow them to rule over others. But from the beginning Jesus was misunderstood, and over the centuries Christianity has become so corrupt that there is very little of the original message, and it has been corrupted by falsehoods. And when Christianity became so corrupt that it was at its final state, in the 18th century a heavenly revelation was given to Emanuel Swedenborg to restore its state to its original intended form. And this is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Second Coming

The two essential truths that have become corrupted and falsified in modern Christian churches, which the general public is unaware of, are as follows:

1. God is One personal Being of Love, revealed in Jesus Christ in human form. Jesus is one and the same as Jehovah of the Jews of the Old Testament.
2. A spiritual life is obtained by turning away from evil and doing good, acknowledging that the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit conquers evil and sinful tendencies within us.

In place of this, modern Christian churches have supplanted Christianity with a form of tritheism in a belief of three persons, where they have no idea which person they should pray to when they pray. Although they claim to be monotheistic in the mouth, in their mind there is a tritheism of three personal beings. And instead of focusing on doing good in one's life, the focus is on "faith" which is again misinterpreted as belief alone (it in fact means, living by the truth). Instead of repentance the false theology of vicarious atonement is taken to mean that sins are merely removed by a confession in a belief statement. In its worst form, false Christianity is nothing more than an external appearance used to hide one's hidden evils. This is the false religion of the Antichrist, foretold in the book of Revelation as a false tritheistic idol that makes itself appear to be Christian (see The Prophecy of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet).

The book of Revelation is a revelation of how the Christian churches would become utterly corrupt in its end. Anyone can see historically how the churches suffered not only from early heresies but what exactly was true about Jesus, beginning especially in the fourth century beginning with the Council of Nicea. But that this was foreseen in the Bible can be shown from the interpretation of Revelation 13:8, which has also not been understood:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8)

It is known to many that the "Lamb" represents Jesus, for a lamb represents innocence, the highest form of good. But unknown to many is this: the Lamb represents how Jesus made His very human form Divine. And this Divine Human is the Son, not a separate personal being as is so often told in a lie that no one understands. In Jesus there is a Holy Trinity of soul, body and spirit. A Trinity of three persons is a fiction, an idol that has entered the most Holy of holies of the churches, misleading many and causing those who have any rational thought to leave the church as naturalistic atheists.

The other portion of this text that is misunderstood is that "slain from the foundation of the world" is taken to mean that this refers to the pre-existence of Christ before creation. Jesus did pre-exist as God before creation, as all of creation was created by the Divine truth or the Word, and Jesus is the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14). But this is not the meaning of the text: the "foundation of the world" is not the beginning of creation, it refers to the foundation of the Christian church, for throughout scripture the words "earth" and "world" do not refer the physical globe of the earth or creation but rather to the church itself.

What it means is that from the very beginning of the foundation of the Christian church, at the beginning of the world age of the Christian dispensation, Jesus has been misunderstood and rejected. The claim that the Christian church would become corrupt is not a new claim, it was foretold in Biblical prophecy in the first century. Swedenborg explains this in his works Apocalypse Revealed as well as Apocalypse Explained:

"Slain from the foundation of the world, signifies the Lord's Divine Human not acknowledged from the first establishment of the church. ...From the foundation of the world signifies the first establishment of the church, as well the Jewish as the Christian. It is known that the Jews did not acknowledge the Lord's Divine Human. That the Roman Catholics do not, is also known: and that neither do the Reformed, see above (n. 294). The creation of the world is not meant here by the foundation of the world, but the establishment of the church: for by the world, in the widest sense, the whole world is meant, and as well the good as the evil in it, and sometimes the evil only; but in a sense not the widest, the same is meant by the world as by the globe and by the earth, that is, the church. That the church is signified by the globe, may be seen n. 551; and by the earth n. 285. That by founding the globe and the earth is signified to establish the church, and that by the founding and the foundation of them is signified establishment may be evident from Isa. xxiv. 18; xl. 21; xlviii. 12, 13; li. 16, 17; lviii. 12; Jer. xxxi. 37; Mic. vi. 1, 2; Zech. xii. 1; Ps. xviii. 7, 15; xxiv. 1, 2; lxxxii. 5; lxxxix. 11. That the world also signifies the church (Matt. xiii. 37-39; Joel i. 9, 10). And that the Lord is called the Saviour of the world, from faith in Him (John iii. 16-19; iv. 42; vi. 33, 51; viii. 12; ix. 4, 5; xii. 46, 47). That the world also means the people of the church (John xii. 19; xviii. 20). It may be seen from this what is signified by the foundation of the world; also, Matt. xxv. 34; Luke xi. 50; John xvii. 24; Apoc. xvii. 8." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 589).

And again:

"Slain from the foundation of the world, signifies whose Divine in His Human has not been acknowledged from the first establishment of this church. This is evident from the signification of "the Lamb slain or killed," as being not acknowledged (see above, n. 315a, 328a, 328b), here that His Divine in His Human has not been acknowledged (of which presently). Also from the signification of "the foundation of the world," as being the first establishment of the church. For "the world" signifies in the Word several things, namely, the world in general, also both those who are good and those who are evil in it, also the evil only who are in the world, and so also the hells. "The world" has also a similar signification as "the earth," namely, the church; and that is also here meant by "the foundation of the world," as also in Matthew:—

The King shall say to them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (xxv. 34).

The Lord is not acknowledged when His Divine in His Human is not acknowledged, for the reason that the Lord is not then regarded as God, but only as a man, who is not able to save. And although it is believed from the Athanasian Creed that the Lord is the Son of God born from eternity, and that His Divine is equal to the Divine of the Father, yet (since they separate His Human from His Divine) they divide the Lord as it were into two persons, which they call natures, making the Lord one thing as the Son of God from eternity, and another as the son of Mary. And because they so divide the Lord no one is able to approach Him unless he is willing to approach Him as one person when regarded as God and as another when regarded as man. Such has been the idea of the Lord from the first foundation of the church, as can be seen from the writings of the fathers, and afterwards from the writings of their sons. The Lord has been thus divided in the church from its beginning, because they did not understand the Word. For where the Lord mentions the Father it is believed that a Divine distinct from His Human is meant, although it is clearly evident in Matthew and in Luke that the Lord was conceived by the very Divine which is called the Father, consequently that this very Divine is in His Human as a soul is in its body; and the soul and the body are one Person. And what is wonderful, this is taught in express terms in the Athanasian Creed, which is the doctrine concerning God in the whole Christian world, and yet scarcely any one in that confession gives any heed to it." (Apocalypse Explained, n. 807).

I decided to write this because of this coronavirus pandemic: it is causing many of these old churches to shutter and close down, and many will not survive the financial losses they experience.  And that, my friends, can be a very good thing. For the old churches must die in order for the New Church to be reborn anew. This coronavirus pandemic is going to change many things in this world, and it is my prayer that this will be one of them.

A Revelation on the Incarnation of the Word, the Logos, the Pre-Existence of Christ

The New Testament reveals that Jesus Christ, before He was born, had a pre-existence. This is made apparent in the Gospel of John, where Jesus is the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14). Here the Gospel of John uses the Greek word Logos, which had various meanings in ancient Greek philosophy. It simply meant "word," or "discourse" or "opinion" or it could mean "reason" among other meanings. Plato used the word Logos to mean not just the word, but also the unspoken word, the rational principle that governs order in the universe. The Hellenistic Jew Philo of Alexandria used this meaning: Logos was an intermediary between God and the material world, and even called it the "first born of God" - similar to how Paul called Christ "the firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1:15). It is this meaning, from the philosopher Plato, that the apostle John uses in opening the Gospel on the Word. Thus many of the early church fathers saw the philosophy of Plato as a precursor to the revelation of Christianity (see Take It from the Church Fathers: You Should Read Plato).

The Greek concept of Logos fits in with ancient Jewish thought in the Old Testament, as God creates everything through His Word. Just as the Law provides order on how man should live, so His word commands and orders all of creation. This has been continually confirmed in the discoveries of modern science, which continues to describe how the material world is governed by physical laws. While science can trace the origin of the universe to the Big Bang, in which time and space were created, it was revealed to Swedenborg that the universe was not created out of nothing, but from the Divine Truth, from the spiritual world in which there is no time or space.

Concerning the pre-existent Word, John says this:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)

From this we know there are two aspects to God: the Divine itself (God) and the Word of God.  But the Word of God in itself is also Divine.  We can also view the Word of God as an emanation of the Divine, which in itself is also Divine.  But what is the distinction? Swedenborg offers some insights here: the Word of God is not just the mere speech of God, it is the Divine Truth:

"...truth Divine which is from the Lord fills the heavens, and makes the heavens; and if you will believe it, all things are made and created by it. The Word, which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, by which all things were created, and by which the world was made (John i. 1-14), is Divine truth. That this is the one only substantial thing, from which are all things, few are able to apprehend, as no other idea is at this day held concerning Divine truth than as of the speech of the mouth of one in authority, in accordance with which his commands are executed" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9410.5)

The Divine Truth progresses through several spiritual levels: it first emanates from God and passes through the highest celestial heaven, then the middle spiritual heaven, then the lower heaven, and from there into the natural world, where it becomes speech and words and has been preserved in the literal sense of scripture (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9407). The Bible is the Word of God, written in symbolic correspondences, and through the Word of God contained in scripture man has the power to become spiritual:

"...man becomes spiritual by means of the knowledges of truth and good from the Word applied to the uses of life. Why men become spiritual by means of knowledges from the Word, and not by means of other knowledges, shall now be told. All things that are in the Word are Divine, and they are Divine for the reason that they have in them a spiritual sense, and by that sense communicate with heaven and with the angels there. When, therefore, man has knowledges from the Word and applies them to life, then through these he has communication with heaven and by that communication becomes spiritual; for man becomes spiritual by his being in like or in corresponding truths with the angels of heaven. It is said in "corresponding" truths, because each and all things in the sense of the letter of the Word are correspondences, for they correspond to the truths that angels have. But the knowledges derived from other books, which set forth and by various means establish the doctrines of the church, do not effect communication with heaven except by the knowledges from the Word they contain; such knowledges do give communication if they are rightly understood and are applied to life, and not to faith alone. Everyone can see that this is so from this, that the Word in itself is Divine, and what is Divine in itself can become Divine with man by his applying it to life. "Becoming Divine with man" means that the Lord can have His abode with man (John 14:23), thus dwelling with him in what is His own (that the Lord dwells in His own with man and angel, and not in what is their own [proprio illorum], see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 12). The Lord dwells in His own when He dwells in those things with man that are from the Word, for the Lord is the Word (John 1:1, 2, 14); and the words that He spoke, that is, that are in the Word: Are spirit and life (John 6:63, 68; 12:50)" (Apocalypse Explained, n. 195.4).

Swedenborg was revealed something further concerning God and His Word (or Logos): God is not just the Divine itself, but the Divine Love itself, and the Divine Truth emanates from the Divine Love as light emanates from fire in the natural world:

"The Lord is the Word, because it is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good. That the Lord is the Word, He teaches in John in these words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us (John i. 1, 14). Because this has been hitherto understood to mean only that God taught man through the Word, therefore it has been explained as a hyperbolical expression; and its being so called implies that the Lord is not the Word itself. This is because they did not know that the Word means the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, or, which is the same, the Divine Wisdom of the Divine Love. That these are the Lord Himself is shown in Part First of the treatise concerning the "Divine Love and Wisdom:" and that they are the Word, is shown in the "Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture" (n. 1-86). How the Lord is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, shall also be here briefly told. No man is man from the face and the body, but from the good of his love and from the truths of his wisdom; and because a man is man from these, every man also is his truth and his good, or his love and his wisdom; without them, he is not man. But the Lord is Good itself and Truth itself, or, which is the same, is Love itself and Wisdom itself; and these are the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and which was made Flesh" (Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Providence, n. 172).

That God is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, which act as one as the will and understanding in each person, is something that has been kept hidden from the Christian church until now.  In scripture the Divine Love is known as the Father, whom no man has ever seen, and this became manifest in the incarnation of the Divine Truth in Jesus Christ.

The concept of Divine Love and Divine Truth pervades the entire revelation of Christianity in the writings of Swedenborg: the Father and Son are one in Jesus Christ as the soul and body are one. Love and faith must work in conjunction with each other to produce the fruits of faith.  All words in scripture have relation to aspects of love and truth, which is spelled in detail in Heavenly Arcana, providing proof that the Bible is Divinely Inspired. The union of love and truth manifests in the marriage of one woman with one man, as women are forms of love and men are forms of truth, and this is why all sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden, for it is a spiritual relationship from the Divine which forms the love between man and woman.

God as Divine Love and Divine Truth is explained in detail in Swedenborg's work, Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Wisdom.  It does, at first, look like something new.  Once one understands it, scripture begins to open up in a new light, for every word in scripture is related to the union of love and truth, or to its opposite, evil and falsity.  What is interesting is that over 2000 years ago, Philo of Alexandria, who also attempted to uncover the spiritual sense of scripture, was given a brief revelation of this truth:

"I have also, on one occasion, heard a more ingenious train of reasoning from my own soul, which was accustomed frequently to be seized with a certain divine inspiration, even concerning matters which it could not explain even to itself; which now, if I am able to remember it accurately, I will relate. It told me that in the one living and true God there were two supreme and primary powers - goodness and authority; and that by his goodness he had created every thing, and by his authority he governed all that he had created; and that the third thing which was between the two, and had the effect of bringing them together was reason, for that it was owing to reason that God was both a ruler and good" (On the Cherubim, 1.27-28).

This passage from Philo is so close to the revelation that Swedenborg received that God is Divine Love and Divine Truth that it is simply amazing. It is one of the few occasions where Philo states he received this from inspiration, not his thought from reasoning. God here is good, which is the same as Divine love, and authority, or God as ruler, is the same as Divine Truth. In fact Swedenborg explains that Jehovah, or the Lord, is given the title of King as kingship is a symbolic office that signifies Divine Truth, as kings rule from the law. Moreover, Swedenborg explained that the human rational acted as an intermediary between man's internal spiritual nature and man's external knowledges and memory from the senses of the body. Unfortunately, besides this brief moment of inspiration, Philo did not develop the thought further and did not associate the Divine "authority" with the concept of Logos, or the Word which we see in the gospel of John. Instead rather, he viewed Logos as what unites the two aspects of the Divine. The revelations given to Swedenborg is more complete on this matter, as it was explained that Divine Truth passes through several levels or degrees, and does at length descend in the form of a Divine Rational that is an intermediary between the Divine Love and the more external form of Divine Truth.

Now, as the Divine Truth descends through various degrees of order, from the Divine itself, through the heavens, to the material world in which we reside, Swedenborg was shown something else: the union of the Divine love with Divine Truth takes on the human form: The human form is the form of truth.

"In conclusion I would mention a certain arcanum [secret] as yet unknown, namely, that every good and truth which proceeds from the Lord and makes heaven, is in a human form; and this not only in the whole and in what is greatest, but also in every part and in what is least; and that this form affects every one who receives good and truth from the Lord, and causes every one in heaven to be in a human form according to reception. Hence it is that heaven is like to itself in general and in particular, and that the human form belongs to the whole, to every society, and to every angel, as was shown in the four chapters from n. 59 to 86; to which it is here to be added, that it belongs to every thing of thought from heavenly love with the angels. This arcanum [secret], however, falls with difficulty into the understanding of any man, but clearly into the understanding of angels, because they are in the light of heaven" (Heaven and Hell, n. 460)

Thus literally, man is made in the image of God, for the human form is a receptacle of love and truth in man's understanding. Because of this, the angels only see God through the human form (Heaven and Hell, n. 79). God is a Divine Man, a Divine Human, from Whom proceeds Divine Truth, and this proceeding Divine from the Lord is known as the Holy Spirit which sanctifies us through the truth.

So now we come to the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. As He is the Word made flesh, before He became incarnate in human form, which human form is the Son of God, He was seen by the angels as a Divine Human in the heavens:

"Before the coming of the Lord there was a Divine Human of Jehovah in the heavens, for by passing through the heavens He presented Himself as a Divine Man before many on earth. But at that time the Divine Human was not so one with the Divine itself, which is called the Father, as when the Lord made it in Himself altogether one." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6000.7)

The reason why Jehovah as to His Divine Truth had to become incarnate in human form to save humanity, is that before the coming of Jesus Christ the Divine Human could only flow into man through the angelic heavens, but man was becoming cut off from the angelic heavens due to sin:

"...the Divine Human before the Lord's coming into the world, was Jehovah Himself flowing in through heaven when He spake the Word; for Jehovah was above the heavens, but what passed from Him through the heavens, was then the Divine Human, inasmuch as by the influx of Jehovah into heaven, heaven was in the form of man, and the Divine Itself thence was the Divine man. This now is the Divine Human from eternity... But because Jehovah by this His Divine Human could not flow in longer with men, since they had so far removed themselves from that Divine, therefore He assumed the Human and made this Divine, and thus by influx thereby into heaven He was able to reach even those of the human race who received the good of charity and the truth of faith from the Divine Human, which was thus made visible, and thereby deliver them from hell" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6280.1-2)

This Divine Human that was in the heavens through the angels ceased, or was made more manifest, once God became incarnate in Jesus Christ (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6371.2). Up until that time the Divine could only become manifest to humanity be temporarily investing its presence in an angelic being, which scripture calls the "angel of the Lord." With the Lord, however, the Divine Truth became incarnate in human form so that the Divine was the soul to the human body born in time. Through this human body, the Divine launched an attack against all the hells, as the hells were able to tempt Jesus through the human body. Though born with two natures, upon the resurrection Jesus Christ had one Divine nature - a new nature, which Swedenborg calls the "Divine Natural," where the Divine can interact with us and be a direct intermediary. Up until the incarnation, there were only two degrees of the Divine: the Divine celestial, and the Divine spiritual, through which the Divine Human could descend through the heavens of the angels. And Swedenborg was told this:

"I have been told from heaven that in the Lord from eternity, Who is Jehovah, before the assumption of the Human in the world, there were the two prior degrees actually, and the third degree in potency, such as they are also with the angels; but that after the assumption of the Human in the world, He put on also the third degree, which is called the natural, and that thereby He became a man similar to man in the world, with the difference, however, that this degree, like the prior degrees, is infinite and uncreated in Him, while these degrees in angel and in man are finite and created." (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 233)

This "Divine Natural" is the Divine Human of the Lord, and is the Son of God.  Only when the Divine was able to completely unite the body to Himself and make it Divine was the Divine could flow from Him in the form of the Holy Spirit, thus the Holy Spirit did not exist until Jesus was glorified as to His body (John 7:39). How the Lord progressively united His Divine essence to His human form is described in detail in Heavenly Arcana, and in truth it is the most detailed revelation of the Christology of Christ, solving many of the theological disputes that had occurred in the early Christian church, as their thought was hindered by some falsehoods inherent in Greek philosophy. With this revelation, we no longer have to speculate on the nature of Jesus Christ: He is the Divine Truth incarnate, and His body has been made completely Divine so that He can now interact directly with us through the Holy Spirit, as well as by living according to His Word - for to read and learn by the Word, is to be taught directly by the Lord Himself.

In Remembrance of the War of Jehovah

On Memorial Day we honor our war veterans who fought in battle.  But let us remember one battle or war that almost no one has seen, and very few understand, much less remember. It is the war that Jehovah fought against all the hells to save humanity.

The One God Jehovah descended and assumed human form for the purpose of redeeming humanity. The way this was done is he inherited a human body capable of being tempted from his human mother. But his soul was Divine and could not be tempted: thus in Jesus Christ, a battle arose between Jehovah and all of hell.

These temptations were a thousandfold if not greater than the ordinary temptations that humans undergo in their daily lives. They are described very briefly in the gospels when they mention how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after having been baptized. They are described in more detail in the Psalms, and some of it becomes clear in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus sweated blood. The Catholic mystic Emmerich described it as a constant psychological assault of evil spirits flooding the mind of Jesus with evil and perverse thoughts - and the way Emmerich describes it, an ordinary man would have gone insane.

Man, in this material world, lives in between the realm of heaven and hell, which are in constant equilibrium and this is the origin of our free will. Animals do not have this, and this is what makes man spiritual - a part of his or her soul is eternal and lives forever. But on this planet man had become so withdrawn in his ego and materialism, that heaven began to become cut off, and spiritual influx from heaven was threatened to be cut off. Divine influx not only leads us to what is good, but our very lives are dependent on this Divine influx. Swedenborg was told by angels that had not Jesus come, we would have reached a state where there would be no human alive on this planet.

So, it became necessary for Jehovah to descend in human form, and make his human Divine - a Divine Human. In this manner, the connection between God and man was restored in the God-Man: for once he made his human Divine, the Holy Spirit could flow from his body into all humanity. Not only this, but also heaven and hell were brought back into equilibrium with each other. This is mentioned briefly in the New Testament - as to how when Jesus died, many souls rose from the dead and appeared in the holy city, and that between the time he died and rose from the dead he preached to the souls caught in the middle region of Limbo between heaven and hell. Souls that had been held back there due to the prevailing power of hell were able to ascend with Jesus to heaven. This is described in symbolic form by the deliverance of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, and the Exodus by passing through the Red Sea. Thus Jesus was crucified on the Passover to indicate the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Some glimpses of the War of Jehovah against hell can be seen in the descriptions scattered throughout the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, especially his work on The Last Judgment, as well as a brief vision by the Catholic visionary Catherine Anne Emmerich.

It is, unfortunately, a forgotten war. So let us remember on Memorial Day the forgotten hero that saved us all from certain death - death of not just the body, but the death of the soul. Did not Jesus give us the ritual of communion, and say "Do this in remembrance of Me?" For through Jesus Christ we can now have the opportunity of living in eternal happiness, by turning away from evil and doing what is good through the commandment of the golden rule. 

How the Chalcedonian Creed Corrupted Christianity

In the revelations of the New Church it was revealed that Jesus Christ has one Divine Nature, which He acquired when He rose from the dead. This Divine which manifested in human form is in fact the Son of God, it is not a separate person born from eternity. God the Father was known as the Father since Jesus was born of a virgin, there was no concept of a trinity of three persons. How Christianity was changed beginning in the 5th century is documented in the the following work:

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years

This was the era of the Christological controversies, where they debated the nature of Christ due to various heresies that had arisen. It was mainly settled in the Chalcedonian Creed of 451 A.D. which divided Christ into two natures. Ironically, the original Christians, those of the Oriental Orthodox Church, dissented, as this disagreed with what was originally taught in the first three centuries of Christianity. Since they believed in one nature, they were classified as "monophysites" which was then declared a heresy.

So who is correct?  According to the revelations received by Swedenborg, the Monophysites held to the original doctrine that Jesus had one Divine nature, even as to his body when He rose from the dead. This can be easily proven - in the Eucharist of Communion, the body and blood of Jesus Christ is the center of worship. God had to become incarnate and make His human Divine, in order to restore the connection to humanity.

So why did they divide Christ into two natures? This, ironically, had already been declared a heresy just two decades earlier - it was known as the Nestorian heresy. The reason for dividing Christ into two natures was so that the Pope could declare himself as the "Vicar of Christ," and thus assert his authority over everyone else. The motivation was to rule over others by means of religious power. This was shown to Swedenborg in a vision:

"As further regards this truth [of the Divine Human], it should be known that the Ancient Church acknowledged it, and also the primitive Christian Church; but after the papal sway increased even to establishing dominion over all human souls, and exalted itself — as is said of the king of Babylon in Isaiah...
"How this was decreed in a certain council, has also been revealed to me. There appeared to me certain spirits in front to the left at the plane of the sole of the foot, at some distance from me, who were talking together, but about what I did not hear. It was told me that they were some of those who composed the council in which the decree was made regarding the Lord's two natures, the Divine and the human. Presently, I was permitted to converse with them. They said that those who had the greatest influence in the council, and who were superior to the rest in rank and authority, came together in a dark room and there concluded that both a Divine and a human nature should be attributed to the Lord; principally for the reason, that otherwise the papal sway could not be maintained. For if they had acknowledged the Lord to be one with the Father, as He Himself says, no one could have been recognized as His vicar on earth; and schisms were arising at that time, by which the papal power might have fallen and been dissipated, if they had not made this distinction. Then to give their decision strength, they sought out confirmations from the Word, and persuaded the rest.
"The spirits added that by this means they were able to rule in heaven and on earth, because they had it from the Word, that to the Lord was given all power in heaven and on earth; which power could not have been attributed to any vicar, if His Human also was acknowledged to be Divine; for they knew that no one was allowed to make himself equal to God, and that the Divine had that power of Itself, but not the Human, unless it was given to it, as it was afterward to Peter. They continued, that the schismatics of that day were men of acute discernment, whom in this way they were able to quiet, and by this means the papal power was also confirmed. From this statement it is evident that this distinction was invented only for the sake of dominion; and that for this reason they were not willing to know that the power given to the Lord's Human in heaven and on earth makes it manifest that it also is Divine. That Peter, to whom the Lord gave the keys of heaven, does not mean Peter, but the faith of charity, which, because it is from the Lord alone, is the power of the Lord alone, can be seen in the preface to the twenty-second chapter of Genesis." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4738)

So do we have to believe what was declared as true by men of the Dark Ages? No we do not, instead we can follow the truth of the Divine Human, and understand that this is the true meaning hidden behind the ritual of the Communion. It is the central truth of Christianity that has been lost in this modern age.

What is the Little Book of Seven Thunders?

The book of Revelation speaks of an angel descending from heaven, holding a little book open in his hand, who then cries out and seven thunders utter their voice. The apostle John was about to write what the seven thunders uttered, but is commanded not to reveal them, and they would only be revealed in the days of the seventh trumpet. He is then commanded to eat the little book, after which he is commanded to prophesy (Rev. 10).

The identity of the little book, and the revelation of the seven thunders, has puzzled many. As explained in The Mystery of the Book of Seven Thunders Explained, it was revealed to Swedenborg that the the content of the little book was concerning a teaching in scripture that few have observed: Jesus Christ is Jehovah in human form, and that His human form is Divine, a Divine Human.

The book was kept sealed, as at this day the majority of Christians understand the Son of God as a second person of a trinity, a form of tritheism. This teaching, plus one is saved by belief alone without regard to works (how one lives one's life according to the commandments) is described as the dragon, the beast and the false prophet: see The Prophecy of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.

In regards to the little book of the seven thunders, Swedenborg gets more specific: the content of the little book was actually the same as the contents of The Doctrine of the Lord, which focuses on a study of scripture that shows that Jesus is Jehovah in human form, and that His human form is actually the Son of God. The Divine exists within Him as the soul exists in the body. As He was born of a virgin, He calls God "Father." But the idea of three persons is a false one invented by men. Thus following the revelation of the little book, the book of Revelation describes a religious conflict between those who follow the revelation (the 2 witnesses and the 144,000) and those who follow the dragon, the beast and the false prophet.

When one reads Swedenborg's explanation of the little book of Revelation 10, he offers little support for the conclusion. In most cases he will reference scripture, and in other cases he will reference a dialogue with angels in a heavenly vision. But here he does neither. Is there any evidence of support?

PSALM 29 AND THE SEVEN THUNDERS

I have been working on a work of the Psalms that explains the numeric significance of its poetic structure, paying attention to the number of the Psalms, the number of verses, words and even letters. The Jews knew this but the knowledge has been generally lost in Biblical studies. I have restored the number of verses according to the Hebrew poetic parallelism, and to my surprise discovered that verse, word and letter counts of scripture are actually significant, and can help explain or reinforce the actual text. I have been using a computer program to find counts that are significant, and came across this find, among many others:

• In Psalms 29-70 there are exactly 700 poetic verses. The number 70 corresponds to 700.
• In Psalms 73-150 there are exactly 1400 poetic verses, which is 2 x 700.

This pattern is hidden until one restores the proper verse counts. The 700 verses in Psalms 29-70 caught my attention. I at first ignored it, as Psalm 70 is not in any way related to the content of Psalm 29. However I then realized that the numbers were reinforcing one unnoticed fact about Psalm 29: Psalm 29 mentions a word for thunder exactly seven times:

1. The thunder of Jehovah is upon the waters (v. 3)
2. The thunder of Jehovah is with power (v. 4)
3. The thunder of Jehovah is with grandeur (v. 4)
4. The thunder of Jehovah breaks the cedars (v. 5)
5. The thunder of Jehovah hews the flames of fire (v. 7)
6. The thunder of Jehovah makes the wilderness to travail (v. 8)
7. The thunder of Jehovah makes the hinds to calve (v. 9)

The word for "thunder" (Heb. qowl or qol) is unnoticed in all Bible translations as it is translated as "voice" - both translations are allowable, depending on context. One reason it is translated as "voice" is that there is another word for "thunder" in verse 3. But it is unmistakable: Psalm 29 is the little book of seven thunders.

Even with this insight, most who read Psalm 29 will not know what it means, except understood in its spiritual sense. It is an unusual Psalm, and some scholars simply presume it was borrowed from an earlier hymn dedicated to a Canaanite god of thunder. However here we will explain it in the spiritual sense, as published in my other work, The Symbolism of the Psalms.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF PSALM 29 AND THE SEVEN THUNDERS

Psalm 29 begins as follows: Give unto Jehovah, ye sons of gods (Ps. 29:1).

In the spiritual sense, "sons of God" are those who are in the the truths of the Word, are who follow spiritual truths. But in the highest sense it is telling all who are in spiritual truths to acknowledge the one Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah as to the Divine truth in human form. In the revelations of the New Church, the title "Son of God" is used for Jesus to refer to His Divine Human. The human is that which was born to the virgin Mary in time, not a Son of God "born from eternity" which is a falsehood invented by the Nicene Creed.

But what about the rest of Psalm 29? Most will pass it off as "figures of speech" not worthy of attention. But in the New Church, every word of scripture is significant and has a spiritual meaning. In a general sense, the subject of Psalm 29 is as follows, which Swedenborg recorded in his summary of the spiritual meaning of this Psalm:

"The power of the Divine truth from the Word dissipates falsities and reforms the natural (v. 3-9) which is from the Lord alone (v. 10-11)."

This is what it means in the spiritual sense. The cedars of Lebanon are the thoughts of the human rational mind, the hinds that calve are the affections of the natural man.  But in the highest celestial sense, it refers to how Jesus Christ made His human form Divine. This took place in gradual stages, as his human form had inherited a sinful nature from his mother Mary by which Jesus could be tempted (despite what the Roman Catholic Church say on this matter, they are incorrect and have distorted the truth of Christianity). This is summarized in seven principles in The Doctrine of the Lord by Swedenborg:

I. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah.

II. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, took on the Human to save men.

III. He made the Human Divine from the Divine in Himself.

IV. He made the Human Divine by temptations admitted into Himself.

V. The full union of the Divine and the Human was effected in Him by the passion of the cross, which was the last of the temptations.

VI. He successively put off the human taken on from the mother, and put on the Human from the Divine in Him; and this is the Divine Human and the Son of God.

VII. Thus God became Man, as in first principles so also in ultimates. (Doctrine of the Lord, n. 29)

Also, the union of the Divine with the human took place in gradual stages, until Jesus Christ became the Divine Human, Jehovah Himself in natural visible form:

"That the Lord made His Human Divine from the Divine in Himself may be evident from many passages in the Word, of which those will now be adduced which prove,

1. That this was done successively; which are these: Jesus grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him (Luke ii. 40). Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (verse 52).

2. That the Divine operated by the Human, as the soul by the body. This is evident from these: The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do (John v. 19). Of Myself I do nothing; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things. He that sent Me is with Me: He hath not left Me alone (viii. 28, 29; v. 30). I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father Who sent Me, He gave Me commandment what I should say and what I should speak (xii. 49, 50). The words which I speak to you, I speak not of Myself: the Father Who abideth in Me, He doeth the works (xiv. 10). I am not alone, because the Father is with Me (xvi. 32).

3. That the Divine and the Human operated with unanimity appears from these: What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise (John v. 19)" (Doctrine of the Lord, n. 32)

THE TEMPLE AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD

As further evidence that Psalm 29 is the little book of seven thunders, confirming Swedenborg's statements concerning the little book of seven thunders in the book of Revelation (see Apocalypse Revealed), we have this statement in Psalm 29:

And in His temple every one says, the glory of Jehovah (Ps. 29:9)

This particular verse, however, is slightly mistranslated, although it is allowable, with the shifting of the name of Jehovah to the following verse:

And in His temple every one says, glory (Ps. 29:9)

That the name Jehovah should be shifted to the previous verse I had previously discovered by analyzing the numerical poetry of Psalm 29, which I will explain in an upcoming work. That the phrase "glory of Jehovah" is correct, can be seen in parallel passages where the phrase "glory of the LORD (or Jehovah)" is mentioned in scripture:

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Ex. 40:34-35)

In the spiritual sense, "the glory of the LORD" is the Divine itself, and the tabernacle or temple is human form of Jesus Christ. That this is so, can be seen from the following passage:

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,  and will you raise it up in three days?”
But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:18-21)

So in the hidden spiritual sense, Psalm 29 speaks how Jehovah made His human Divine, and commands all who follow the truth to acknowledge this. After Swedenborg had written The Doctrine of the Lord, he was probably told this by angels who recognized it described the same spiritual truths that is described in Psalm 29. Swedenborg also stated that the little book of seven thunders also concerns how Jesus made His human Divine by admitting and conquering temptations due to assault between the Divine and all of hell, which is the general subject of the Psalms in general.

So, the work that has been done on the numerical poetry of the Psalms is bearing fruit, which is confirming the internal revelation of scripture as revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg. This one took me by surprise, so I thought I would share this in this blog while I continue editing this work on the Psalms for publication. I could not cover the entire spiritual meaning of Psalm 29; for the details of every single word mentioned therein see the work The Symbolism of the Psalms.

The Spiritual Meaning of "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26)

What is the true spiritual meaning of the passage Let us make man in our image (Gen. 1:26)? In traditional Christianity, this passage is used as one of the proof texts for the concept of a trinity of three persons, a doctrine that was invented in the 4th century A.D. to combat Arianism.  The doctrine came from men, and has no support from scripture as the doctrine is utterly foreign to the monotheism of scripture, except if one takes passages from the New Testament in a very literal manner, ignoring the numerous passages where God is described as not only one personal Being, but as Being itself:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”1  And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Ex. 3:14)

The phrase "I AM" is a title of Divinity, and Jesus claimed this title for Himself (John 8:58) as He is Jehovah incarnate in human form.  The name Jehovah comes from a Hebrew word that means "He is." Thus God is one personal being, and beside Him there is no other god:

Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. (Isa. 44:6).

Jesus also claims the title of first and last (Rev. 1:17, 2:8). The concept of a trinity of three persons is thus foreign to scripture.  As for Gen. 1:26, the ancient Jewish interpretation is that this refers to God among His congregation of angels in heaven. It in no way indicates a plurality of persons in the Godhead, for such a belief is none other than polytheism.

THE SPIRITUAL INTERACTION BETWEEN ANGELS AND MAN

The Jewish interpreation that the plurality of Gen. 1:26 refers to God and his angels is confirmed in the revelations received by Emanuel Swedenborg, who takes the concept further. Our lives are dependent on the influx of spiritual life, which flows into us through angels and spirits:

"Man does not know at all that he is governed of the Lord by means of angels and spirits; and that with every man there are at least two spirits, and two angels. Through spirits communication of man with the world of spirits is effected, and through angels with heaven. Without communication through spirits with the world of spirits, and through angels with heaven, and so through heaven with the Lord, man can by no means live. His life entirely depends on that conjunction. If the spirits and angels should withdraw, he would perish in a moment." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 50)

This spiritual psychology of the human soul goes against the modern concept of the individual self, that it is the self alone that is the origin of our being and thought. To make man in our image, means God's influence over man through angels to regenerate us into a spiritual being:

"While man is unregenerate, he is governed quite otherwise than when regenerated. While unregenerate there are evil spirits with him, who so domineer over him that the angels, though present, are scarcely able to do any thing more than just to guide him so that he may not plunge into the lowest evil, and bend him to some good — in fact to bend him by means of his own desires to good, and through the fallacies of the senses to truth. He then has communication with the world of spirits, through the spirits who are with him, but not so much with heaven, because evil spirits rule, and angels only avert their rule.
"But when man is regenerated, angels rule, and inspire him with all goods and truths, and with fear and horror of evils and falsities. The angels indeed lead, but only as ministers, for it is the Lord alone who governs man by angels and spirits. And because it is done through the ministry of angels it is here first said, in the plural number, Let us make man in our image; and yet, because the Lord alone governs and disposes, it is said in the following verse, in the singular number, God created him in His own image." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 50.2-3)

In ancient times the spiritual communication was more direct, but it was cut off due to our separation due to the love of self and ruling over others. Thus man is merely natural, and spiritual communication is opened through the Lord who appeared in human form, as well as through scripture which is the Divine truth in written form. There are occasions when this is opened up, often through dreams, and for one personal experience see the blog posts A Clairvoyant Dream of an Angel and a Celtic Fairy Tale as well as An Angelic Visitation at Death and a Funeral.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF IMAGE AND LIKENESS?

In the literal sense the meaning of image and likeness is that God is anthropomorphic.  This is partly true: in the New Church revelation God is Man, and we are but his images, for in order to be understood God has revealed Himself in human form. But in more spiritual sense, a human becomes an image or likeness of God inasmuch as does what is good according to the truth, for Good and Truth are the two primary aspects of the Divine:

"And God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him. The word image is twice used here, because faith, which is of the understanding, is called His own image; and love, which is of the will — and which in the spiritual man comes after, but in the celestial man precedes — is called the image of God." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 53)

To give God glory is to acknowledge that the good we do and the truth we think is not from our self, but from God alone, for the selfish ego is the source of nothing but evil:

"By giving to the Lord glory and honor nothing else is meant in the Word but to acknowledge and confess that all truth and all good are from Him, and thus that He is the only God; for He has glory from the Divine truth and honor from the Divine good" (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 249; see also the work The Symbolism of the Psalms)

Thus the purpose of the worship of God, giving Him glory, is not for the sake of God, but for the sake of ourselves and our salvation, for in honoring and worshiping God we withdraw from the self-glorification of our own ego. And inasmuch as we withdraw from the selfish ego, that is as far as we will become an image and likeness of God in good and truth in a life of usefulness.

The Spiritual Meaning of the Woman of the Apocalypse

The book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, is a highly symbolic work.  The most comprehensive interpretation can be found in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg (he wrote 3 volumes entitled Apocalypse Revealed, which was drawn from about 6 volumes of an unpublished work entitled Apocalypse Explained, combined here in one work: The Apocalypse Revealed and Explained). Many others have tried to interpret and failed, and where they failed Swedenborg only succeeded as the internal spiritual meaning was revealed in spiritual visions. Whether or not one believes in visions, the interpretation is rational and consistent.

I would like to focus here on the symbolism of the woman of the Apocalypse, mentioned in chapter 12:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Rev. 12:1-6)

In the traditional interpretation, the woman is the church or the virgin Mary, the child is Jesus, the dragon that wishes to devour the child is Herod who tried to kill Jesus after he was born, and the child being caught up to heaven is a reference to the ascension of Jesus. As for the woman dwelling in the wilderness, the Seventh Day Adventists (and others) apply this to a 1260 year period of Roman Catholic dominion ending in the 18th century, which happens to coincide with the time Swedenborg began receiving heavenly revelations concerning scripture, the afterlife, and the Second Coming.

There is an inherent problem in this interpretation: with the way the book of Revelation is structured, this describes future events from John's time, not a flashback of what already happened. That this is so, can be seen from the following earlier commandment of Jesus to the apostle John:

Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this (Rev. 1:19)

The "things which you have seen" are the past, which covers chapter 1, "those that are" are the present, which covers chapters 2-3, "those that are to take place after this" is the future state of the church and the last judgment, covered in chapters 4-22. This can be seen at the beginning of chapter 4:

Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this (Rev. 4:1)

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE WOMAN

This means the woman, the child, and the dragon describes a future spiritual conflict from John's time. Overall, the book of Revelation describes the final end state of the Christian church itself, and the establishment of a New Christian Church. The woman of the apocalypse seen in heaven represents this New Christian Church, which is seen in heaven as it will be first established in the spiritual realms before being manifested here on earth. Thus the traditional interpretation that identified the woman with the Church is correct, which is supported in scripture as the church is described as the bride of Christ. What the traditional interpretation does not know, however, is that the woman of the apocalypse represents a new age of the Christian church.

So why is the woman clothed with the sun, has a crown of stars, and has the moon under her feet? Some have interpreted these as an astronomical references.  However that is not the case: throughout scripture, the physical sky is used as symbolic reference to the spiritual heaven. The sun, moon and stars have the following meaning:

1. The Sun is a symbolic reference to love of the Lord. The reason for this is that in the spiritual heaven, the Lord lights all of heaven as a spiritual Sun. This central Sun of heaven has been seen by visionaries and in Near Death Experience accounts. This is the origin of "sun worship" in the ancient world. For the woman to be clothed with the sun signifies that this new Church will consider love to the Lord as primary, and faith or religious belief as secondary.
2. The moon, in general, is a spiritual symbol of those who follow the commandments according to their faith. They act primarily from truth, instead of first from love. In the spiritual heaven they are more distant, thus the central sun of heaven appears to them like a moon, as truth is but a reflection of love.
3. The stars, in general, represent different angelic societies of heaven which appear at a distance as a star. Stars in the spiritual sense also signify spiritual knowledges. One is first introduced to higher spirituality through knowledge, and this is represented by the Magi who followed the star of Bethlehem.

Thus in the prophetic last days, it is said the sun will turn black, and the moon will be blood red. This is not an astronomical event, but rather signifies that spiritual love and charity will die, and truths will be falsified and profaned. One can see this in that most people talk about religious "faith," but only rarely do they first talk of love and charity, and living a life according to the commandments. If love was the focus, all the religious disputes would disappear.

The spiritual meaning is governed by context, and for the woman to be standing on the moon has an interesting meaning. In this sense, it signifies a state of the New Christian church revealed from heaven, but not yet in conjunction with a church on earth that follows the doctrines of the New Church. If what was revealed from heaven was in union with a church on earth, the woman would have been seen as standing upon the earth. But she is not, which signifies a state in which a revelation is made that is not yet accepted in practice on earth. This is the state where we are today: we have one of the most spectacular Christian revelation sitting right in front of us in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, and yet so few Christians are aware of it.

The Roman Catholic interpretation is based on their false practice of Marian veneration, and is thus a superficial interpretation. It is "superficial" in the sense that Mary herself is a symbol of the church, but inasmuch as one identifies the woman with Mary the individual it becomes a false interpretation. Both the Roman Catholic and Protestant versions of Christianity will be replaced by this New Christian Church which is first established in heaven. The falsification of Christianity by both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches are represented by the woman Jezebel in the letter to the church of Thyatira, and the whore of Babylon described in chapters 17-18. As many will hold onto their old traditions with their inherent falsehoods, this will lead to a spiritual conflict between the older traditional Christian churches and the new. This conflict is first described in chapter 11 (see The Identity of the Two Witnesses of Revelation) and continues in chapter 12 of the Apocalypse.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE CHILD CAUGHT UP TO HEAVEN

In the traditional interpretation, the child born to the woman that is caught up to heaven is Jesus Christ. Another interpretation is that the child collectively refers to the saints who are "raptured" before a final tribulation (for a more spiritual interpretation of the rapture, see Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?).

The spiritual interpretation is not so literal as the above two interpretations. In the spiritual sense, for the woman to be in pain and travailing to give birth signifies the difficult reception of a doctrine in regard to Jesus Christ. In dreams, when one sees woman who is pregnant that signifies a troublesome time, and to be in pain giving birth means to accept a very hard truth. In this particular case, the child that is born represents the doctrine that Jesus is the Divine God Man, who is Divine even as to his human. His human form is known as the Son of God.  It is a difficult truth, because of three primary false doctrines that have infested the traditional Christian church:

1. The division of God into three personal beings, a form of tritheism, and,
2. The division of Jesus Christ into a permanent Divine and human nature, and,
3. The separation of faith from charity or good works, that living a good life contributes nothing to salvation.

The above three points, unfortunately, forms the foundation of modern traditional Christian churches. They accept it without question as the foundation, even though these particular doctrines were not known or generally defined until centuries after Jesus had come. The primary doctrine of the New Church is centered on the Divine Human, and that the true Trinity is the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine proceeding, which is present in one person, Jesus Christ.

For the child to be caught up into heaven signifies that the doctrine of the Divine Human of the Lord will be protected by heavenly angels, despite intense opposition from those who make God three and separate faith from charity, represented by the dragon. The woman then flees to the wilderness, which signifies that the doctrines of the New Church will be in obscurity and known to a select few people for a long period of time. This represents the present state of the New Christian Church. The story of Enoch ascending into heaven has a similar meaning, which signifies the spiritual knowledge of the ancient church was preserved among a select few for future posterity.

Although Swedenborg does not make the connection, the interpretation that the child born to the woman seen in heaven is the doctrine of the Divine Human can be seen in the spiritual sense of Joseph's dreams (Genesis 37), where Joseph sees the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing down to his sheaf. This is explained in detail in the work Heavenly Arcana (aka Arcana Coelestia or Heavenly Secrets).

OLD IDEAS DIE HARD

Old traditions die hard, and it takes time for those who have been falsely taught since childhood to change their mind. Preconceived falsehoods prevent people from understanding and accepting the truth. I recently heard a minister divide doctrines into three buckets: essential doctrine, bible teachings, and a "gray area" of teachings that don't matter which cause useless arguments. The first thing he mentioned for essential doctrine was of course the trinity, and by that meant a trinity of three persons. Anything outside of that he classified as "heresy" and was worth fighting against. And that immediately brought to mind the image of the dragon fighting against the woman and child of the Apocalypse. He got his buckets right, but dropped the wrong thing into the wrong bucket. What most do not realize is that it is possible to drop that Nicene Creed into the bucket of "gray areas" that do not matter and yet still follow essential doctrines of Christianity (see Oneness Theology vs. a Trinity of Three Persons and Is the Nicene Creed Biblical? Does the Nicene Creed define True Christianity?).

The Father and Son are one Person in Jesus Christ

The True Trinity is the soul, body and spirit of Jesus Christ, thus the Father and Son are one in Him as the soul and body are one. The Father is the invisible Divine, and the Son is the visible form of the Divine:

No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. (John 1:18)

The only begotten Son here is the human form born in time to the virgin Mary, by which the Lord made Himself known to men. Again, the Father is the invisible Divine, the unknown Divine, which no man can approach directly except through His human form:

And the Father himself, who has sent me, has borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape (John 5:37)

The Son, who was sent, is not another person, but the human form in which the Divine became incarnate, who was sent into the world by being conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Father, again, is the invisible Divine, thus Paul states the following concerning Jesus Christ:

Who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15)

Jesus declared Himself to be "I AM" (John 8:58). This title was reserved for Jehovah, who is Being itself (Ex. 3:14). This is why Jesus is called Lord, for the Lord in the highest sense is Jehovah. Jesus Christ is Jehovah in human form.

JESUS DENIES THE FATHER IS SOMEONE SEPARATE FROM HIM

That the Father is not a distinct person from Jesus, is specifically denied by Jesus. Moreover, those who do not know that the Father resides in Jesus Christ do not know who Jesus is:

Then said they unto him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. (John 8:19)

Philip, again, asks Jesus to show them the Father. Again, Jesus denies that the Father is some other person distinct from Himself:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (John 14:8-11)

Those who follow the doctrine of three persons from eternity do not know who Jesus Christ really is. How is the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father? This can only occur if they are One Person, as the soul and body are one. Jesus always speaks of the Father as His own volitional will, thus the Father is always mentioned with the word "will" and it is the Father who does the "works" in Jesus Christ. The Father is the Divine Love, and the Son is the Divine truth which gives form to the Divine Love.

FALSE OBJECTIONS FROM TRINITARIANS

There are two main objections that trinitarians, who in heart are tritheists, will bring up:

1. Jesus is said to sit at the right hand of the Father.
2. Jesus prays to the Father

In the first objection, they are reading scripture literally and do not understand figures of speech. The term "right hand" means "all powerful." While incarnate the Lord was in an inferior state, but upon the resurrection He was raised in a glorified body that was one with His Divine nature. Thus all power was given to Him in His human form. That "right hand" means "all power" can be seen in the post The Spiritual Symbolism of the Right Hand.

In the second objection, they will point to instances where Jesus prays to the Father. On this point, they do not understand that when the Divine became incarnate, the Divine was lowered into an inferior state of being to become like us. The human body He inherited from the human mother was infirm like us, with all its weaknesses, and it inherited to propensity to commit sin. In His human form a battle ensued between all of hell of Jehovah. They tried to tempt Him, but as His soul is Divine, He resisted temptation and overcame the power of hell. It is in this manner that Jesus saves the human race, for when we repent asking for His help, He works inside of us to resist the sin.

Thus tritheists confuse two persons with two states of being. For the Father is the infinite unknowable Divine, and the Son is the Divine in human form, who was born in a limited state and had to grow and spiritually develop like we all do. This continued until the Divine became one with the human form, and vice versa. God became Man, and man became God. That the Divine descended into an inferior state of being is declared by the apostle Paul:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and [things] in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:5-11)

Recently, I encountered a third objection from a trinitarian, who quoted this verse:

It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears witness of me. (John 8:17-18)

So does this prove the Father and Son are two distinct persons? No it does not. One person is speaking here, and that is Jesus Christ, which is why the Jews next ask who is His Father. So if one person is speaking, how can Jesus claim there are two witnesses? Quite easy, Jesus explained this before:

But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, has borne witness of me (John 5:36-37)

In other words there are two witnesses to confirm the identity of Jesus Christ:

1. The teachings of Jesus which is centered upon Himself as Lord, and,
2. The works of miracles He did

This is why the Jews found it so hard to confront Jesus, because of His miracles and the works that He did. The works, His doings, is of the Father, because the Father is the Divine love which was the will of Jesus. The Divine truth was His teaching, and they bear witness of each other. Thus He told Philip to believe that the Father is in Him, and if not, believe Him because of the works He did. For whether one says Father, or the will of the Father, or the works of Jesus, it is no difference because they are the same.

THE NAME OF THE FATHER IS JESUS CHRIST

In the Lord's Prayer, we say "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." And Jesus commands us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What is the name of the Father? It is none other than Jesus Christ. That the apostles understood this, is shown from the fact that they baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this means, those who pray to the Father as a separate person from Jesus Christ do not know who they are praying to, and are misdirected. All prayers should be directed towards Jesus Christ, for the Father cannot be approached except through Him.

So who are you going to believe, what Jesus Christ said, or what the traditions of men say? Should we not follow what Jesus Christ said about Himself over the false traditions of men?

Is the Nicene Creed Biblical? Does the Nicene Creed define True Christianity?

The Nicene Creed, a creed invented by men in the fourth century, is taken by the majority to be considered the foundation of Christianity. It constantly comes up to define who is Christian and who is not, and one can see its influence in most Christian churches when they define their belief in God as "three persons." However, it was completely unknown for the first three centuries of Christianity. Historians who study early Christianity will divide it into two periods: ante-Nicene and post-Nicene. The reason: the Nicene Creed changed and altered the original truth of Christianity. Today, people just follow it without question.

But what if it was found that the Nicene Creed was not based on scripture? If it is found to be against scripture, then the Nicene Creed is not only not Biblical, but it is also not Christian.

There are two kinds of people: those who follow religious authority without question, and those who question what they have been taught to see if it is true or not. The majority follow authority without question. But Jesus warned us against the traditions and doctrines of men:

Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? (Mat. 15:3)

So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. (Mat. 15:6)

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. (Mark 7:8)

So let us take a close look at the Nicene Creed. There are two main variants, the original from 325 A.D., and a later version called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed from 381 A.D. Is it Biblical or not? Is it a tradition of men that has made void the word of God? Let's take a look.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A SON OF GOD BORN FROM ETERNITY?

Most people assume that the Nicene Creed defines Christianity as it always was. But this is not true. For the first time, the Nicene Creed defined a Son of God born from eternity, always existing. This was done to combat the Arian heresy, which declared that Jesus was some created being or angel who once did not exist. However to combat Arianism, they invented something new: a Son of God born from eternity. Here is the exact wording:

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made"

Key words here are "begotten, not made." The creed of 381 A.D. goes further:

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made"

This doctrine, a Son of God that is begotten from eternity, but not made, is not only inherently contradictory but is also a new doctrine. Such a concept was unknown to the Apostolic Church. That it was unknown, can be seen from the Apostle's Creed which predates the Nicene Creed. In fact, the Nicene Creed is a modified version of the Apostle's Creed (see The Nicene Creed: a distorted version of the Apostle's Creed), which says this:

"I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord, Who was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary"

The Apostle's Creed states the Son of God was not begotten from eternity, but rather was begotten in time to the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. And to be more clear, the gospel of Luke states that the Son of God is the human born to the virgin Mary:

"The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

The Son of God thus came into existence for the first time with the virgin birth of Mary. Jesus had no human father, and is thus known as the Son of God. In the gospel of John, the Son of God is described as the "Word made flesh" -

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

The Word of God made flesh is the Son of God, born in time, to the virgin Mary. This is the exact OPPOSITE of the Nicene Creed which makes the illogical statement of "begotten, not made."

That the Son of God is the human born in time to the virgin Mary is declared by the apostle Paul:

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared [to be] the Son of God with power (Rom. 1:3-4)

And again:

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4)

The Son of God was the human that was born to Mary in time, thus Paul says the Son of God was "made of a woman, made under the law." Again, this is the exact OPPOSITE of what the Nicene Creed says, which makes the inherently illogical statement of "begotten, not made." Whereas before God spoke by prophets, it was not until Jesus came that God spoke to us through his human form, the Son:

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Heb. 1:1-2)

Moreover, we have this prophecy from the Old Testament:

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Ps. 2:7)

This is a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus the Son of God (Acts 13:33, Heb. 1:5). Again it says "this day" and "begotten" - referencing the virgin birth in time. There is no such thing as a Son of God born from eternity, this is a false invention of the Nicene Creed which was invented to combat Arianism.

If, however, one understands that the human form, the incarnation, was begotten, and the soul of Jesus was Divine and thus not created, one can arrive at a true understanding of the incarnation.

JESUS HAD A PRE-EXISTENCE AS JEHOVAH

So once it is seen that the Son of God is the human born in time to the virgin Mary, some may then reject it because Jesus definitely stated he had a pre-existence before his human incarnation:

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (John 17:5)

So does this mean that the Son is a "second person" that made a descent to become incarnate? No it does not, in his pre-existent form, Jesus was simply the Word of God:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

The Word of God, known to the Greeks as the Logos, is the Divine Truth that emanates from Divine Love. There is one Divine Being who is Divine Love and Divine Truth, who made a descent into human form as to the Divine Truth that emanates from Divine Love. This Divine Love and Divine truth corresponds to the will and understanding in each person, for we are made in His image (see God is Divine Love and Divine Truth).

So who is Jesus Christ?  He declares who he is in the gospel of John:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:58-59)

The reason why the Jews picked up stones to stone Jesus is he was identifying himself with none other than Jehovah, which we know from this passage:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”1  And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Ex. 3:14-15)

In other words, Jesus is Jehovah Himself. More precisely, Jesus is Jehovah in human form. It is the human form, the Word made flesh, which is the Son of God. The Father is to the Son as the soul is to the body in Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said the Father is in him, and he who has seen him has seen the Father.

The final objection one may bring: why is Jesus described at sitting at the right hand of the Father, as also described in the Nicene Creed of 381 A.D.? This is a figure of speeach which means all power, or omnipotence from the Divine. See The Spiritual Symbolism of the Right Hand.

THE HUMAN FORM IS THE SON OF GOD

The Nicene Creed was created in order to fight against the Arian heresy which declared Jesus was a created being separate from God. But in so doing, the Nicene Creed perverted true Christianity by postulating a Son of God born from eternity, "begotten not made."

It is the human born to the virgin Mary which is the Son of God, and Jesus later revealed that he is Jehovah in human form. This human form was initially inferior to God and subject to temptation like all of us, but upon the resurrection the human was made one with the Father, a Divine Human. The Divine Human is the Son of God. With the creation of the Nicene Creed, endless theological disputes resulted. In the end, many were deceived to declare that Jesus has two natures, the Divine and the human. And this fit the political goal of Papal Rome who falsely declared the Pope to be the "Vicar of Christ." The truth of the matter is that Jesus gradually put off the human from the mother, and was transformed into a Divine Human.

WHY THE DIVINE HUMAN IS CENTRAL TO TRUE CHRISTIANITY

That Jehovah would become incarnate in human form, and make the human Divine, is the central message in all of scripture. By inventing a Son born from eternity, the Nicene Creed lost sight of the original Son of God: the Word made flesh, born in time. It is the union of the Divine with the human form by which salvation was effected. And this is declared by Jesus himself:

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:17-19)

This shows that the Word of God is indeed the Divine Truth (see God is Divine Love and Divine Truth). To "sanctify" is cleanse onself from evil and falsehood through the truth. But notice this: Jesus says he must sanctify himself. Jesus could be tempted by all of hell from the imperfect human form he inherited from his human mother Mary. In this manner, a spiritual warfare arose between Jehovah and all of hell, it is through the human form that Jesus could be tempted. It is in this way that he "bore our sins." By making his human form Divine upon the resurrection, the Lord could reach all humanity that had been cut off from heaven through the Holy Spirit.

This salvation from Jesus Christ is available to all who decide to shun evils as sins, and to walk down the path of repentance.

That the human form was made Divine, or one with the Father, is shown from Jesus' statement after the resurrection:

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matt. 28:18)

This is not power being handed from one person to another, but rather, the human form was made Divine. God now had an external form by which He could reach all humanity through the Holy Spirit which proceeds from his human form. That the human form was made Divine is also declared by Paul:

God was manifest in the flesh, made righteous in the Spirit (1 Tim. 3:16)

Peter has a similar statement:

For Christ also suffered  once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1 Pet. 3:18).

Both passages contain the same word for "righteous." But Jesus could not suffer for our sins unless he had inherited a body that had sinful tendencies from Mary. This he completely resisted until he made the external human form Divine. The Divine Human also explains the central ritual of Christianity: the Eucharist, or Communion, in which all of the church partake in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This obviously does not mean the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ, but rather, we partake of Jesus inasmuch as we receive good and truth from Him (see The Symbolism of Communion and Salvation by Blood).

That the human born to the virgin Mary in time is in fact the Son of God, can be seen from the epistles to John. In these epistles, the apostle John fought against a form of Gnosticism which declared that Jesus was never born in the flesh with a human body:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4:2-3)

Again:

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. (2 John 1:7)

The flesh, or the human form, is in fact the Son of God, and was made Divine upon the resurrection.

WHY THE NICENE CREED IS ERRONEOUS

In true Christianity, there is one God who is one personal being, who became incarnate in human form, and this human form was united with His Divinity. The Nicene Creed created a Son of God that was begotten from eternity yet not made, which not only is a self-contradictory statement, but it creates a second person. The true Trinity resides in the soul, body and spirit of Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as three persons.

The Nicene Creed also adds the phrase "light of light, and God of God" and this kind of statement is nowhere found in scripture.  I won't even attempt to analyze it as its meaning is not clear.  Why not use scripture:

With the Nicene Creed, a false theology then developed. It leads to several falsehoods which pervades the theology of modern Christianity.

• It was by making the human form Divine that salvation for humanity was effected. This is why the resurrection was a necessity. Without knowledge of the Divine Human, which is the Son of God, a new theology later developed in the west known as "vicarious atonement" or "substitutionary sacrifice," which no theologian can logically explain.
• The Nicene Creed forces one to create a second person from eternity, which is a falsehood. It leads to dividing God into three persons, each of them god, thus hidden within the facade of modern Christianity is a form of tritheism.
• Many who pray the Lord's prayer, when praying to the Father, pray to Him as another person bypassing Jesus Christ, without realizing prayers should be directed to Jesus Christ alone, for he is the Father in human form, the visible image of the invisible God.
• As the theology is not based on scripture, nor on rational logic, much of theology became enshrouded in the "mysteries of faith" a form of blind belief, in which rational thinking is suspended (see Truth by Religious Tradition & Authority vs. Spiritual Truth).
• In the modern age, in which the public is no longer blinded by religious authority, an irrational theology leads many to a loss of faith, to a form of atheistic naturalism.

From the Nicene Creed the anonymous Athanasian Creed later arose in the west. To see a corrected version of the Athanasian Creed which removes the falsehood of the Nicene Creed, see The Corrected New Athanasian Creed.

CHURCHES SHOULD RE-EXAMINE FALSE TRADITIONS

Hopefully this will lead some to re-examine the false traditions of men which Jesus warned against. Practically every church will list "three persons" as the top thing of what they believe in, which is an erroneous assumption invented by the Nicene Creed.

All should examine if the Nicene Creed is Biblical, instead of using the Nicene Creed to evaluate if one is Christian or not. Because if the Nicene Creed is in itself not Biblical, it in itself does not define true Christianity, and in fact perverts it. If however, one understands that Jehovah was begotten in time in human form, but as to the soul is Divine and not created, one can arrive at a true understanding of Christianity. And this would mean there is a need for true Christianity to be restored to its original form, by acknowledging God as one personal Divine being: Jesus as Jehovah in human form.