I once entered a temple in the world of spirits where many were assembled. Before the sermon began they were discussing with each other the subject of Redemption.  The temple was square, with no windows in the walls; but in the center of the roof there was a large opening, through which light from heaven entered, making it lighter than if there had been windows at the sides.

And behold, in the midst of their talk about redemption a black cloud floating from the north suddenly covered the opening, causing such darkness that they could not see each other, and could scarcely see their own hands.

While they were standing amazed at this, behold, the black cloud parted in the middle, and through the parting angels sent down from heaven appeared, who dispelled the cloud to both sides, and again the temple was filled with light.  The angels then sent down one of their number into the temple, who in their name asked the congregation what they were contending about to cause so dense a cloud to overshadow them, take away the light, and bring on darkness.

They answered that it was about redemption, as having been wrought by the Son of God through the passion of the cross, whereby He made expiation, and delivered the human race from damnation and eternal death.

To this the angel who had been sent down said, “Why through the passion of the cross? Explain why through that.”

[2] Then a priest came forward and said, “I will explain in order what we know and believe, which is, That God the Father, being angry with the human race, condemned it, shut it out from His clemency, and declared all men doomed and accursed, and consigned them to hell; and that He wished His Son to take upon Himself that condemnation, and the Son consented, and for that purpose came down and assumed the human, suffered Himself to be crucified, and thus transferred to Himself the condemnation of the human race; for we read, `Cursed is everyone that hangeth on the wood of a cross.‘ Thus did the Son by interceding and mediating propitiate the Father; and then the Father, moved by love for His Son, and by witnessing His anguish upon the wood of the cross, determined to forgive men; ’but only those to whom I impute Thy righteousness; these I will change from children of wrath and malediction to children of grace and benediction, and will justify and save them; the rest, as before determined, may remain children of wrath.‘ This is our faith, and these things are our righteousness, which God the Father implants in our faith, which alone justifies and saves.”

[3] When the angel had heard this he was silent for some time, for he was motionless with amazement; but afterwards he broke silence and said, “Can the Christian world be so insane, and wander away from sound reason into such madnesses, and from such paradoxes draw conclusions about the fundamental dogma of salvation? Who does not see that these things are diametrically opposed to the very Divine essence, that is, to God’s Divine love and Divine wisdom, and at the same time to His omnipotence and omnipresence? No good master could so deal with his manservants and maidservants, nor even a wild beast or a bird of prey with its young. It is horrible. Is it not contrary to God‘s Divine essence to annul that call which has been made to the whole human race and to each individual? Is it not contrary to the Divine essence to change the order established from eternity, which is, that every man is to be judged by his life? Is it not contrary to the Divine essence to withdraw its love and mercy from any man, still more from the whole human race?  Is it not contrary to the Divine essence that it should be brought back to mercy, and as mercy is the very essence of God, that it should be brought back to its own essence, by witnessing the anguish of the Son? Is it not abominable to imagine that He ever departed from that essence, since that essence is Himself from eternity to eternity?

[4] Furthermore, is it not impossible to introduce into such a thing as your faith is, the righteousness of redemption (which in itself belongs to the Divine omnipotence), and to impute and ascribe it to man, and without any further means to declare him righteous, pure, and holy?  Is it not impossible to remit sins to anyone, and to renew, regenerate, and save him, by mere imputation, whereby unrighteousness is turned into righteousness, and a curse into a blessing? Would it not be possible in this way to change hell into heaven and heaven into hell, or the dragon into Michael and Michael into the dragon, and so end the war between them? Is anything needed but to withdraw the imputation of your faith from one and bestow it upon the other? Thus would you compel us who are in heaven to live forever in constant fear.  Neither is it in accordance with justice and judgment for one person to take upon himself the guilt of another, and for the guilty thus to be made innocent and have his guilt washed away.  Is not this opposed to both Divine and human justice? The Christian world does not yet know that there is an order, still less what that order is, which God introduced into the world simultaneously with the creation of it; and that God cannot act contrary to that order, since He would then be acting contrary to Himself; for God is order itself.”

[5] The priest understood what was said by the angel, because the angels who were above let in light from heaven; and presently he sighed and said, “What is to be done? At this day all men so preach and pray and believe. It is in every mouth, `Good Father, have mercy upon us; forgive us our sins for the sake of Thy Son’s blood, which He poured out for us upon the cross.‘ And to Christ they pray, `Lord, intercede for us.’ And to this we priests add, `Send us the Holy Spirit.‘”

The angel then said, “I have observed that from the Word not interiorly understood the priests prepare an eyesalve which they apply to the eyes that are blinded by their faith; or they make from it a sort of plaster which they spread upon the wounds inflicted by their dogmas; and yet they fail to heal those wounds, because they are chronic sores. Therefore go to him who stands yonder, pointing his finger towards me, ”and he will teach you from the Lord that the passion of the cross was not redemption, but the uniting of the Lord’s Human with the Divine of the Father; while redemption was the subjugation of the hells and the restoration of order in the heavens; and unless this had been done by the Lord when He was in the world there would be no salvation for anyone on the earth or in heaven. He will also teach you the order established from creation, to live according to which is to be saved, those who live according to it being numbered among the redeemed, and called the elect.“

When all this had been said, windows were formed in the walls of the temple through which there flowed in an illumination from the four quarters of that world, and cherubs appeared flying in the brightness of the light; and the angel was taken up to his companions above the opening; and we went away delighted.

Second Memorable Relation:-

One morning as I awoke from sleep, the sun of the spiritual world appeared to me in its glory; and as far below it as our earth is from its sun I saw the heavens; and presently there were heard from the heavens words ineffable, the sum of which found utterance in this declaration, ”There is one God, who is Man; and His abode is in that sun.“ This utterance passed down through the middle heavens to the lowest, and from that into the world of spirits where I was; and I perceived that the angels‘ idea of the one God, in its descent by degrees, was changed into the idea of three Gods.  Observing this I went forward to speak with those whose thought was of three Gods, saying, ”What a monstrous idea!  Where did you get it?“

They replied, ”We think of three from our way of conceiving of the Triune God; nevertheless this idea does not fall into our utterance. When we speak we always declare emphatically that God is one. If there is a different idea in our minds, let it be, provided it does not come forth and sever the idea of the unity of God in our speech. Still it does come forth from time to time, because it is within; and if at such times we should speak plainly we should declare that there are three Gods. But we guard against this, lest we should be laughed at by those hearing us.“

[2] Then they spoke openly from their thought, saying, ”Are there not three Gods, since there are three Divine persons, each of whom is God? We cannot think otherwise when a leader of our church, speaking from his collection of holy dogmas, ascribes to one creation, to another redemption, and to the third sanctification; and when furthermore he ascribes to them certain attributes, to each one His own, which he asserts are incommunicable; and these include not only creation, redemption, and sanctification, but also imputation, mediation, and operation. Is there not, then, one who creates us, and He also imputes; and is there not another who redeems us, and He also mediates; and a third who effects the mediated imputation, and He also sanctifies? Who does not know that the Son of God was sent into the world by God the Father to redeem the human race, and thus become the Expiator, Mediator, Propitiator, and Intercessor?  And as He was one with the Son of God from eternity, are not the Father and Son two distinct persons? And as these two are in heaven, one sitting at the right hand of the other, must there not be a third person to carry out in the world what is decreed in heaven?“

[3] Hearing this I was silent, and thought to myself, O what folly! They have no idea of what is meant in the Word by mediation.

And presently, at the Lord’s command, three angels descended from heaven and were associated with me, in order that I might speak from interior perception with those who were in the idea of three Gods, particularly in respect to mediation, intercession, propitiation, and expiation, which they attribute to the second person, that is, the Son, but not until after He had become Man; and He became Man many centuries after creation, and during this time these four means of salvation did not exist, and thus God the Father was not propitiated, no expiation was made for the human race, and no one was sent from heaven to intercede and mediate.

[4] Then from an inspiration that came upon me I spoke with them, saying, ”Draw near, as many of you as can, and hear what is meant in the Word by mediation, intercession, expiation, and propitiation.  These are the four predicates of the grace of the one God in His Human. God the Father can in no way be approached, nor can He approach any man, because He is the Infinite, and is in His own Esse which is Jehovah; and if from His Esse He were to approach man He would consume him as fire consumes wood and reduces it to ashes.  This is evident from what He said to Moses when Moses wished to see God:--

That no man could see Him and live (Ex. 33:20).

And the Lord says:--

That no man hath seen God at any time, except the Son who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18; Matt. 11:27).

Again:--

That no one hath either heard the Father‘s voice or seen His shape (John 5:37).

We read, indeed, that Moses saw Jehovah face to face, and spoke with Him mouth to mouth; but this was done through an angel, as was the case also with Abraham and Gideon.  Such, then, being the nature of God the Father in Himself, it pleased Him to assume a Human, and in that to become accessible to men, and thus hear them and speak with them; and that Human is what is called the Son of God; and it is that which mediates, intercedes, propitiates, and expiates. I will therefore explain the signification of these four things which are predicated of the Human of God the Father.

[5] Mediation means that this Human is the medium through which man is enabled to approach God the Father, and God the Father to approach man, and to so teach and lead man that he may be saved. Therefore the Son of God, by which is meant the Human of God the Father, is called the Saviour, and in the world, Jesus, that is, Salvation. Intercession means unceasing mediation; for love itself, which is the source of mercy, clemency, and grace, unceasingly intercedes, that is, mediates in behalf of those who keep His commandments, whom He loves.  Expiation means the removal of the sins into which man would rush if Jehovah unclothed should be approached.  Propitiation means the operation of clemency and grace to prevent man’s bringing himself by sin into condemnation; also protection, to prevent him from profaning holiness. This was the signification of the mercy-seat over the ark in the tabernacle.

[6] It is known that in the Word God has spoken according to appearances, as that He becomes angry, takes revenge, tempts, punishes, casts into hell, damns, and even does what is evil; when in fact He is angry with no one, neither does He take revenge, tempt, punish, cast into hell or damn. All these things are as far from God as hell is from heaven, and infinitely farther; consequently they are forms of speech to express the appearance. Expiation, propitiation, intercession, and mediation, are also forms of speech to express the appearance in another sense, since these are to be understood as predications of approach to God and of receiving grace from God through His Human. But these terms not having been understood, men have divided God into three, and upon these three have based the entire doctrine of the church, and have thus falsified the Word.  From this has come `the abomination of desolation‘ foretold by the Lord in Daniel, and again in Matthew 24.“

When I had said this the crowd of spirits withdrew from about me, and I noticed that those whose thought was actually of three Gods looked towards hell; while those whose thought was of one God, in whom is a Divine trinity, and that this trinity is in the Lord God the Saviour, looked towards heaven; and these beheld the sun of heaven, in which Jehovah in His Human dwells.

Third Memorable Relation:-

I saw at a distance five gymnasia, each one surrounded by a light from heaven. A purple light, such as there is in the clouds in the morning before sunrise on earth, surrounded the first; a yellowish light, like that in the east after sunrise, surrounded the second; a bright light, like that of noonday in the world, surrounded the third; and a moderate light, like daylight when it begins to be tempered by the shades of evening, surrounded the fourth.  The fifth stood in the actual shade of evening. Gymnasia in the spiritual world are halls where the learned assemble and discuss various arcana that are serviceable to their knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.

Seeing these gymnasia I felt a strong desire to visit one of them, and went in spirit to the one that was surrounded by the moderate light; and entering I saw an assembly of the learned, who were discussing with one another what is involved in the statement that the Lord was taken up to heaven and sits at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

[2] The greater part of the assembly said that this should be understood in accordance with the very words, that the Son does so sit beside the Father; and it was asked why He did so.

Some said that the Son had been placed by the Father at His right hand on account of the redemption He had accomplished; others said that it was from love that He sat there; others that it was in order that He might be the Father’s counselor; and being such, that He might be honored by the angels; others that it was because it had been granted Him by the Father to rule in His stead, for it is written that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. But the greater number said that it was in order that He might hear, from the right hand, those for whom He intercedes; for in the church at the present day all approach God the Father, and pray to Him to be merciful for the Son‘s sake; and this causes the Father Himself to turn to the Son, that He may receive the Son’s mediation.  Some, however, said that it is only the Son of God from eternity who sits at the right hand of the Father, that He may impart His Divinity to the Son of man born in the world.

[3] Hearing this, I was greatly astonished that learned men, who had already been living for some time in the spiritual world, should be so ignorant of heavenly things; but I perceived why it was so, namely, that from confidence in their own intelligence they had not suffered themselves to be taught by the wise. But that they might no longer remain ignorant of the meaning of the Son‘s sitting at the Father’s right hand I raised my hand, asking them to give ear to a few words that I wished to say on that subject; and as they assented I said, ”Do you not know from the Word that the Father and the Son are one, that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father? This the Lord plainly says in (John 10:30; 14:10, 11).  If you do not believe this you divide God into two; and when this is done you are unable to think about God otherwise than naturally, sensually, and even materially; and this has been done in the world since the time of the Council of Nice, which introduced the doctrine of three Divine persons from eternity, and thereby turned the church into a theater furnished with painted hangings, wherein the actors were representing new plays. Who does not know and acknowledge that God is one? If you acknowledge this in heart and spirit, all that you have just said is of itself dissipated, or rebounds into the air like nonsense from the ear of a wise man.“

[4] At these remarks many were incensed, and burned to pull my ears and order me to be silent.  But the president of the congregation said with indignation, ”This discussion is not about the unity and plurality of God, for we believe in both, but about what is involved in the statement that the Son sits at His Father‘s right hand; if you know anything about this, speak.“

I replied, ”I will speak, but I pray you to suppress the noise.“ And I said, `To sit at the right hand’ does not mean to sit at the right hand, but it means God‘s omnipotence through the Human that He assumed in the world. By means of this He is in things last as well as in things first; by means of this He entered and overthrew and subjugated the hells; by means of this He restored order in the heavens; and thus by means of this He redeemed both men and angels, and will continue to redeem forever. If you consult the Word, and are capable of enlightenment, you will perceive that `right hand’ means here omnipotence, as it does in Isaiah:--

My hand hath founded the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens (Isa. 47:13).

Jehovah hath sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength (Isa. 62:8).

Thy right hand doth hold Me up (Ps. 18:35).

Look to the Son that Thou madest strong for Thyself; let Thy hand be for the man of the right hand, for the Son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself (Ps. 80:15, 17).

From this it is plain how the following is to be understood:--

The saying of Jehovah to my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet. Jehovah shall send the staff of Thy strength out of Zion; rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies (Ps. 110:1, 2).

This whole Psalm treats of the Lord‘s combat against the hells, and His subjugation of them. As `the right hand of God’ signifies omnipotence:--

The Lord says that He is to sit at the right of power (Matt. 26:63, 64);

And at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69).

[5] But at this the assembly became tumultuous, and I said, “Take heed; for a hand may appear from heaven, and when it appears (as it had appeared to me), it strikes the beholder with an incredible terror of its power; and this has been to me a proof that `the right hand of God‘ signifies omnipotence.”

Scarcely had I spoken when beneath heaven an outstretched hand was seen, at the appearance of which such terror seized them that they rushed in crowds toward the doors, and some to the windows to throw themselves out, and some fell down unable to breathe.  But I remained unterrified, and went out calmly after them; and when some distance away I turned and saw the building enveloped in a dense cloud, and was told from heaven that this was done because they had spoken from a belief in three Gods, and that the former light would return when those who were more sane should meet there.

Fourth Memorable Relation:-

I heard that a synod had been convoked of those celebrated for their writings and learning in respect to the faith of the present day and the justification of the elect thereby.  This was in the world of spirits; and it was granted me to be present in spirit; and I saw an assembly of the clergy, both those of like belief and those of differing beliefs. On the right stood those who were called in the world the Apostolic Fathers, who had lived in the centuries preceding the Nicene Council; on the left stood men renowned in the succeeding centuries for their printed or manuscript works.  Many of these latter had no beards, and wore curled wigs made of women’s hair; and some of them wore ruffled collars with points; while the former had beards and wore their natural hair.

In front of them all stood a man (a judge and a critic of the writings of the present century), with a staff in his hand.  He struck the floor and caused silence.  He then ascended the upper step of the pulpit and breathed out a sigh, and wished to follow it up by a loud exclamation; but the sighing breath kept back the sound in his throat.

[2] At length he spoke and said, “O what an age, my brethren!  There has risen up from the herd of the laity one having neither gown, tiara, nor laurel, who has plucked our faith from heaven and hurled it into the Styx.  O horrible! And yet that faith alone is our star, shining like Orion in the night, and like Lucifer in the morning.  That man, though advanced in years, is wholly blind to the mysteries of our faith, because he has not investigated it and seen in it the righteousness of the Lord our Saviour and His mediation and propitiation; and as he has not seen these neither has he seen the wonders of its justification, which are the remission of sins, regeneration, sanctification, and salvation. This man, in place of our faith-which, being a faith in three Divine persons and therefore in the whole Deity, is saving to the utmost has transferred faith to the second person; yet not even to Him, but to His Human which we call Divine because of the incarnation of the Son from eternity; but is there anyone who thinks of it as anything more than merely human? From this what else can result but a faith from which naturalism flows as from a fountain?  And such a faith, not being spiritual, differs but little from faith in a pope or in a saint. You know what Calvin said in his time about worship from that kind of faith. And pray tell me, anyone of you, whence comes faith. Must it not be directly from God to thus have in it all things of salvation?”

[3] At this his companions on the left, who had shaven faces, curly wigs, and collars about their necks, clapped their hands and shouted, “You have spoken most wisely.  We know that we can take nothing that is not given us from heaven. If this is not faith, let that prophet tell us where faith comes from, and what it is.  It cannot be anything else or from any other source.  To set forth any faith that is a faith, other than this, is as impossible as for one to ride on horseback to some constellation in heaven, and to take a star from it and hide it in his pocket and bring it down.” This they said to make their companions laugh at any new belief.

[4] Hearing this, the men on the right, who had bearded chins and wore their natural hair, were indignant. And one of them rose up (an old man, although he afterwards looked like a young man, for he was an angel from heaven, where those of all ages become youthful); and he spoke and said, “I have heard what your faith is, which the man in the pulpit has so magnified; but what is such a faith but our Lord‘s sepulchre after the resurrection, when it had been closed again by Pilate’s soldiers?  I have explored it and have seen nothing in it but the juggler‘s rods with which the magicians in Egypt wrought miracles.  Indeed, externally your faith in your eyes is like a shrine of molten gold set with precious stones, but when opened it is found empty, except, perhaps, for a little dust in the corners from Papal relics, since that church has the same faith; only with them at the present day it is overlaid with external sanctities. Your faith, if I may indulge in further comparisons, is like a vestal virgin among the ancients who has been buried alive for letting the sacred fire go out.  And I can assure you that in my eyes it is like the golden calf around which the children of Israel danced when Moses had gone away, and had ascended Mount Sinai to Jehovah.

[5] Be not surprised that I use such comparisons in speaking of your faith; for so we speak of it in heaven. Our faith on the other hand is, was, and forever will be, a faith in the Lord God the Saviour, whose Human is Divine and whose Divine is Human; thus it is adapted to reception, and by it the Divine spiritual is united to the natural of man, and a spiritual faith is formed in the natural, and from the spiritual light in which our faith is the natural becomes as it were transparent. The truths of which our faith consists are as many as the verses in the sacred Volume; these truths are all like stars, which by their light make the faith manifest and give it form.  Man acquires this faith from the Word by means of his natural light, in which light it is knowledge, thought, and persuasion; but the Lord causes it, in those who believe in Him, to become conviction, trust, and confidence; thus faith becomes spiritual-natural, and by means of charity becomes living.  With us this faith is like a queen adorned with precious stones, as numerous as those in the wall of the holy Jerusalem (Apoc. 21:17-20).

[6] But lest you may look upon what I have said as mere boasting, and worthy of little regard, I will read to you some passages from the Holy Word, from which it will be evident that our faith is not faith in a man, as you suppose, but in the true God, in whom is the entire Divine. John says that:--

Jesus Christ is the true God, and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

Paul says that:--

In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity bodily (Col. 2:9);

and in the Acts of the Apostles:--

That he preached both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

And the Lord Himself says:--

That there was given to Him all power in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18).

These are but a few of such passages.”

[7] After this the angel looked at me and said, “You know what those who are called Evangelical believe, or are expected to believe, about the Lord the Saviour.  Recite some of these things, that we may see whether they are so foolish as to believe that His Human is merely human, or whether they attribute to Him something of the Divine, and how.”

And then, in the presence of those assembled, I read the following passages from their standard work called the Formula Concordiae, published at Leipsig in 1756: In Christ the Divine and the Human Natures are so united as to make one person (pp. 606, 762).  Christ is truly God and Man in one undivided person, and so remains forever (pp. 609, 673, 762).  In Christ God is Man, and Man is God (pp. 607, 765).  Christ’s Human Nature is exalted to all Divine Majesty; this also from many of the Fathers (pp. 844-852, 860-865, 869-878). As to His Human nature Christ is omnipresent, and fills all things (pp. 768, 783-785).  In Christ, as to His Human nature, resides all power in heaven and on earth (pp. 775, 776, 780).  As to His Human nature Christ sits at the right hand of the Father (pp. 608, 764).  Christ, as to His Human nature, is to be invoked; there proved by quotations from the Scriptures (p. 226).  The Augustan Confession especially endorses this doctrine (p. 19).

[8] When I had read these passages I turned to the president and said, “I know that all here present are associated with their like in the natural world; tell me, I pray, do you know with whom you are associated?”

He answered in a grave tone, “I do; I am associated with a celebrated man, a leader of a host in the army of illustrious men in the church.”

  As he answered in so grave a tone I said, “Pardon me if I ask whether you know where that celebrated leader lives.”

  He answered, “I do; he lives not far from the tomb of Luther.”

At this I smiled and said, “Why do you mention the tomb? Do you not know that Luther has risen, and has now renounced his erroneous ideas of justification by faith in three Divine persons from eternity, and therefore has been placed among the blessed in the new heaven, and sees and laughs at those who run mad after him?”

  He replied, “I know, but what is that to me?”

I then addressed him in a grave tone like his own, saying, “Inspire your celebrated man with whom you are associated with this, Whether there is not reason to fear that in writing as he did against the worship of our Lord and Saviour, he at the same time robbed the Lord of His Divinity, contrary to the orthodoxy of his church, or allowed his pen to plough a furrow in which he thoughtlessly sowed naturalism.”

To this he replied, “That I cannot do, because he and I in that matter are almost of one mind; but what I say he does not understand, while all that he says I understand clearly.” This is because the spiritual world enters into the natural and perceives the thoughts of men there, but not the reverse; such is the condition of association of spirits and men.

[9] As I had begun to talk with the president I continued, “If I may be permitted I will throw in still another query, Whether you are aware that the orthodoxy of the Evangelicals, in the manual of their church called the Formula Concordiae, teaches that in Christ God is Man, and Man is God, and that His Divine and Human are and will forever remain one undivided Person?  How then could he and how can you defile the worship of the Lord with naturalism?”

  To this he replied, “I know that, and yet I do not know it.”

I therefore continued, “Let me ask him, or you in his place, since he is absent, from whom did the Lord our Saviour derive His soul?  If you say from the mother, you are irrational; if from Joseph, you profane the Word; if from the Holy Spirit, you say truly, provided that by the Holy Spirit you mean the proceeding and operating Divine, thus that He is the Son of Jehovah God.

[10] Again, I ask, What is the hypostatic union? If you reply that it is a union as between two persons, a superior and an inferior, you are irrational; for thus you might make God the Saviour two persons, as you make God three; but if you say that it is a personal union like that of soul and body, you say rightly: and this is in harmony with your doctrine, also with that of the Fathers.  Consult the Formula Concordiae (pp. 765-768), also the Athanasian creed, where this is said, `The correct faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man; who although He be God and Man, yet is not two, but is one Christ, one altogether, not by confusion of substance but by unity of Person; for as the reasonable soul and flesh are one man, so God and Man is one Christ.‘

[11] I ask still further, What else was the damnable heresy of Arius, on account of whom the Nicene Council was convened by the Emperor Constantine the Great, than his denial of the Divinity of the Lord’s Human? Tell me, moreover, whom you understand by these words in Jeremiah:--

Behold, the days come that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King, and this is His name, Jehovah our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16).

If you say a Son born from eternity, you are irrational; that was not the Redeemer; but if you say the Son born in time, who was the only-begotten Son of God (John 1:18; 3:16), you say rightly; He through redemption became the righteousness upon which you build your faith.  Read also (Isaiah 9:6), besides other passages in which it is foretold that Jehovah Himself would come into the world.”

At this the president was silent, and turned away.

[12] When all this had occurred the president wished to dismiss the synod with a prayer; but just then a man started up from the company on the left, with a turban on his head and a cap over the turban; and he touched his cap with his finger, and said, “I also am associated with a man in your world, who there occupies a position of great honor; this I know because I speak from him as from myself.”

I asked where that eminent man lived.

He answered, “At Gottenburg; and from him I at one time thought that your new doctrines favored of Mohammedanism.”

I saw that on hearing this all those on the right, where the Apostolic Fathers stood, were thunderstruck, and their countenances changed, and I heard such exclamations as these issuing from their minds through their mouths, “O horrible!” “O what an age!”

But to calm their just indignation I stretched forth my hand begged a hearing; which being granted I said, “I know that a man of that eminence wrote something of the kind in a letter which was afterwards printed; but if he had then known what blasphemy it was he would certainly have torn the letter to pieces and thrown it into the fire.  A slander like that is meant by the Lord‘s words to the Jews, when they said that Christ wrought miracles by other than Divine power (Matt. 12:22-32); and in addition to this the Lord there says:--

He that is not with Me is against Me, and be that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad” (Matt. 20:30).

At these words the countenance of the associate spirit fell; but presently he looked up and said, “I have now heard worse things from you than ever.”

But I continued, “There are two items in this charge-naturalism and Mohammedanism-which are wicked lies and crafty inventions; and two deadly stigmas, designed to turn aside the wills of men and to deter them from the holy worship of the Lord.” And I turned to the latter associate spirit and said, “Tell the man at Gottenburg, if you can, to read what is said by the Lord in (Apoc. 3:18; 2:16).”

[13] At these remarks a tumult arose; but it was quieted by light sent down from heaven, in consequence of which many of those on the left passed over to those on the right, those only remaining who thought superficially, and therefore depended on the word of some master, also those who thought of the Lord as merely human.  From both of these classes the light sent down from heaven appeared to be thrown back, but to fall upon those who had passed over from the left to the right.

True Christian Religion - Containing the Universal Theology of the New Heaven and New Church #134-137
- E. Swedenborg 1688-1772

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