TCR 301 - a day for rest

TCR 301
Sabbath in the language of the original means rest.
Among the Children of Israel
the Sabbath was the holiest of observances,
because it represented the Lord.
The six days represented the Lord's toils and battles against the hells,
the seventh His victory over them, and so rest.
Since that day represented the completion
of the Lord's whole act of redemption,
it was for that reason the height of holiness.
When, however, the Lord came into the world,
so that representations of Him ceased,
that day became a day for instruction in Divine matters,
and also a day of rest from work,
for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life,
and a day for love towards the neighbor.

TCR 297 - saying His Name

TCR 297
. . . God is present in everything to do with religion,
and when He is duly invoked,
His presence is summoned by His name,
and He listens.

TCR 287 - 'Do this, and you will live.'

TCR 287 [2]
. . . since the first tablet of the Ten Commandments
contains in summary form the whole of love to God,
and the second tablet contains the whole of love towards the neighbor,
it follows that they contain the whole of doctrine and life.
A look at the two tablets makes it plain that they are so conjoined
that God from His tablet has mankind in view,
and mankind in his turn from his has God in view.
Thus there is a reciprocal viewing,
such that on God's part He never fails to keep mankind in view
and perform the actions needed for his salvation;
and if a person accepts and does the things laid down in his tablet,
the conjunction becomes reciprocal.
Then, as the Lord's words promised to the lawyer,
'Do this, and you will live.'

TCR 267, 270 - the Lord is the Word and provides salvation

TCR 267, 270
There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth there is a church which possesses the Word,
and so the Lord is known because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and without Him salvation is impossible.
Conjunction with the Lord is established by means of the Word,
and so is association with angels.
It is enough if there is a church which possesses the Word,
even though it is composed of relatively few people,
The Lord is still present by its means throughout the world,
for the Word effects conjunction between heaven and the human race.

. . .when the Word was more or less rejected by the Roman Catholics,
by the Lord's Divine providence the Reformation took place,
and so the Word was, so to speak,
dragged out of its hiding place and put to use.
Also, when the Word possessed by the Jewish nation
was utterly falsified and adulterated, so that it became practically null,
then it pleased the Lord to come down from heaven,
to come as the Word and fulfil it, thus renewing and restoring it,
and to give light again to the inhabitants of the earth,
as these words of the Lord relate:

The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light;
for those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
upon them a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:1 and Matthew 4:16

TCR 263 - the Lord fulfilled & became

TCR 263
. . . each individual is his own will and his own understanding,
and this is what makes one person distinct from another.
Since the will is the organ for the reception of love,
and thus for all the kinds of good which make up his love,
and since the understanding is the organ for the reception of wisdom,
and thus for all the forms of truth which make up his wisdom,
it follows that each individual is his own love and his own wisdom,
or what is the same, his own good and his own truth.
This is the only thing that makes him a person
and being a person consists in nothing else.
As for the Lord, He is love itself and wisdom itself,
and so good itself and truth itself;
He became these by fulfilling every good and every truth in the Word.
For one who thinks and speaks nothing but truth becomes that truth;
and one who wills and does nothing but good becomes that good.
Since the Lord fulfilled all the Divine truth
and Divine good which are in the Word,
both in its natural as well as its spiritual sense,
He became good itself and truth itself, and so the Word.

TCR 249 - what makes a united life

TCR 249
Every person has two life-faculties, known as the understanding and the will.
The understanding receives truth and hence wisdom;
the will receives good and hence charity.
These two faculties must act as one
for a person to be a true member of the church;
and they do so,
so long as a person forms his understanding from genuine truths,
and this appears to be his own doing,
and so long as his will is filled by the good of love,
which is the Lord's doing.
Hence a person has a life of truth and a life of good,
the life of truth in the understanding, the life of good in the will.
So long as they are united, they make not two, but one life.
This is the marriage of the Lord and the church,
or the marriage of good and truth in the case of the individual.

TCR 245 - Are you living real or imaginary?

TCR 245
The Word is like a mine, the depths of which are rich in gold and silver;
or like a mine containing richer and richer veins of gems
the further one goes into it.
It is the understanding of the Word which opens up these mines.

[2] For those who probe the Word to extract from it the truths of faith
and the kinds of good which are needed for life,
the Word is like treasures owned by the Shah of Persia
or the Mogul or Chinese Emperors.
People belonging to the church are like their treasurers,
who have permission to take out as much as they want . . ..
On the other hand
those who merely possess the Word and read it,
without seeking for genuine truths to establish faith,
and genuine kinds of good to guide life,
are like those who know from the newspapers
that there are vast treasures there, but never get a penny from them.
Those who possess the Word without drawing from it
any understanding of genuine truth or any will for genuine good,
are like those people who think themselves wealthy
because they have taken huge loans from others . . ..
Anyone can see that this is imaginary.
They are also like people who walk about in magnificent costume,
ride in gilded carriages . . . yet do not actually own any of these things.

TCR 231 - enlightenment; TCR 238 - the Word is like a treasure-chest

TCR 231
Enlightenment comes only from the Lord,
and to those who love truths because they are true,
and make them their guide to a useful life.

TCR 238
The Word in its literal sense is like a treasure-chest,
in which lie arranged in rows precious stones, pearls and diadems.
If a person regards the Word as holy and reads it as a useful guide to life,
the thoughts in his mind can be compared
to one who holds such a chest in his hand, and throws it heavenwards;
and as it rises it flies open and the treasures inside reach the angels,
who take great pleasure in seeing and carefully examining them.
The pleasure they get from this is shared with people
and brings about association and also the sharing of perceptions.
It was for the sake of this association with angels,
and at the same time being conjoined with the Lord,
that the Holy Supper was instituted;
in this the bread becomes in heaven Divine good
and the wine becomes Divine truth,
in both cases coming from the Lord.
This kind of correspondence is from creation,
and was established in order
that the heaven of the angels and the church on earth,
and in general the spiritual world and the natural one, should be one,
and so that the Lord might conjoin Himself with both at once.

TCR 221 - the tabernacle, the temple - inside & out

TCR 221
. . . the Temple represented the heaven of the spiritual angels,
the Tabernacle that of the celestial angels.
Spiritual angels are those who possess wisdom from the Word,
celestial angels are those who possess love from the Word.
The Lord Himself teaches us in John that the Temple at Jerusalem
means in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human:

Break up this Temple, and in three days I will raise it again.
John 2:19, 21.

He was speaking about the temple of His body.

When the Lord is meant, so too is the Word, for He is the Word.
Now since the interior parts of the Temple
represented the interiors of heaven and the church,
and so those of the Word,
therefore its external parts also represented and stood for
the exteriors of heaven and the church,
and so those of the Word, that is, its literal sense.
We read of the exterior of the Temple
that it was built of whole, undressed stones, and inside of cedar-wood;
all its walls were carved inside with cherubim, palms and open flowers,
and the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 29, 30).
All these things too stand for the externals of the Word,
which are the holy things in its literal sense.

TCR 216 - the celestial, spiritual & natural senses of the Word

TCR 216
At its very heart
the celestial sense of the Word makes it like a gentle flame setting on fire;
at the intermediate level
its spiritual sense makes it like a light giving illumination.
Consequently at its outermost level
its natural sense makes it like a diaphanous object
which the flame turns red as purple, and the light turns white as snow.
It resembles either a ruby or a diamond,
the celestial flame making it like a ruby,
the spiritual light like a diamond.
Since the Word is like this in its literal sense, this is what is meant by:

• (i) The precious stones forming the foundations of the New Jerusalem.
• (ii) The Urim and Thummim on Aaron's ephod.
• (iii) The precious stones in the garden of Eden, in which the King of Tyre is said to have been.
• (iv) The curtains, veils and posts of the Tabernacle.
• (v) Likewise, the external features of the Temple at Jerusalem.
• (vi) The Word in its glory was represented in the Lord at His transfiguration.
• (vii) The power of the Word at its outermost level was represented by the Nazirites.
• (viii) The Word's power is beyond description.

TCR 209 - communication

TCR 209
. . . there can be no communication with heaven by means of the Word
for those who have false notions about doctrine;
their reading falls apart on the way up and vanishes . . ..
The opposite is the case with those who have true ideas about doctrine,
learned from the Lord by means of the Word;
when they read the Word it reaches all the way to heaven
and make a connection with angels there.
The angels themselves,
when they come down from heaven to perform a duty below,
appear to be surrounded by small stars,
especially round their head;
this is a sign that they posses Divine truths from the Word.

TCR 200 - What do they mean?

TCR 200 [2-3]
Anyone who knows nothing of the spiritual sense of the Word
. . . is unaware that
garden, grove and wood
mean wisdom, intelligence and knowledge,
or that olive, vine, cedar, poplar and oak
mean the good and truth of the church
in their celestial, spiritual, rational, natural and sensual forms.
Nor does he know that lamb, sheep, goat, calf and ox
mean innocence, charity and natural affection;
or that mountains, hills and valleys
mean the highest, lower and lowest elements in the church.
Nor does he know that
Egypt means factual knowledge,
Assyria the faculty of reason,
Edom the natural level,
Moab the adulteration of good,
the Children of Ammon the adulteration of truth,
the Philistines faith without charity,
Tyre and Sidon the knowledge of good and of truth,
Gog external worship without any internal.
In general, Jacob in the Word means the natural church,
Israel the spiritual church,
Judah the celestial church.
When one knows all these meanings,
it is possible to reflect that the Word speaks only of heavenly matters,
and those worldly matters are merely the underlying supports for the others.

TCR 191 - the style of the Word and our intentions in reading It

TCR 191
But the natural person still cannot be convinced by quotations
that the Word is Divine truth itself,
containing Divine wisdom and Divine life,
because he looks at it from the point of view of its style,
and in this he cannot see these things.
However, the style of the Word is the actual style of God,
beyond comparisons with any other style,
however high-flown and magnificent.
Such is the style of the Word
that there is holiness in every sentence, every word,
in some places even every letter.
Thus the Word forms a conjunction between a person and the Lord,
and opens the way to heaven . . .
But it ought properly to be known
that the only people to have life from the Word
are those who read it
with the intention of drawing Divine truths from it,
like water from the spring,
and at the same time with the intention
of putting the Divine truths drawn from it into practice in their lives.
The reverse happens to those whose only intention in reading the Word
is to win honors and gain worldly advantages.

TCR 188 - What is the Holy Spirit?

TCR 188 [9]
. . . the Holy Spirit is not a person by Himself,
so not God by Himself either,
but the Holy Divine which goes forth and proceeds
from the one omnipresent God, who is the Lord.
. . . Nowhere in the Old Testament
do we read that the prophets spoke the Word from the Holy Spirit,
but from Jehovah;
and where the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the New Testament,
the Divine which proceeds is meant.
This is the Divine which enlightens, teaches,
quickens, reforms and regenerates.

[11] . . . the Holy Spirit means
the Lord's Divine activity from His Divine omnipresence . . .

TCR 174, 176 - a history lesson; TCR 184 - a Pearl

TCR 174, 176
The Apostolic church means not only the church which existed in various places in the time of the Apostles, but also in the following two or three centuries. But eventually they began to tear the door of the temple off its hinges, and like thieves to break into its sanctuary. The temple means the church, its door the Lord God the Redeemer, and the sanctuary His Divinity. For Jesus says:

Truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door,
but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber.
I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
[John 10:1, 9]

[2] This crime was committed by Arius and his followers. Consequently a Council was summoned by Constantine the Great to meet at Nicaea, a city of Bithynia; and its members, in order to expel the damaging heresy of Arius, invented, concluded and laid down the doctrine that the three Divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed from eternity, each of whom had a personality, and came into and continued in existence by Himself and in Himself. They also held that the second person, the Son, came down and took upon Himself human form and carried out the redemption, and by this means His Human has divinity by hypostatic union, so that by this union He has close kinship with God the Father. This was the beginning from which there spread over the earth heaps of unspeakable heresies about God and the person of Christ. Antichrist then began to rear his head, and split God into three, and the Lord the Saviour into two, thus destroying the Temple the Lord had built by means of His Apostles; this went so far that every stone was pried loose, until not one was left upon another, as predicted by His words (Matt. 24:2). Here 'Temple' does not mean just the Temple in Jerusalem, but also the church; and the whole of that chapter deals with its consummation or end.

176 [2] It is said in heaven that when the Council of Nicaea finished its work, there took place simultaneously the things the Lord foretold to the disciples:

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
[Matt. 24:29]


TCR 184
. . . the Divine Trinity is like a pearl* of great price;
but divided into persons it is like a pearl cut into three,
which is obviously completely ruined.

* The Latin word for 'pearl' is here unio, which also means 'union'.

TCR 163 - a touchstone

TCR 163
. . . the idea everyone has of God determines his place in the heavens.
It is like the touchstone used to test gold and silver,
that is to say, it tests the nature of the good and truth a person has.
For he cannot have any good which leads to salvation except from God,
nor any truth which does not get its quality from the good deep within it.

(i) There is a Divine Trinity consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(ii) Those three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
are the three essentials of a single God,
which make one as soul, body and activity do with a person.

(iii) This Trinity did not exist before the creation of the world,
but it was provided and made after the creation of the world,
when God became incarnate,
and then it was in the Lord God, the Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

TCR 162 - the Word

TCR 162 [6,8]
So they went and entered a room,
the walls of which shone as if made of gold,
and there too they saw a table on which was laid a copy of the Word,
surrounded by precious stones in a heavenly pattern.
The custodian angel said:
'When the Word is opened,
a light shines out from it of indescribable brightness,
and at the same time the precious stones
give a rainbow effect above and around the Word.
When an angel from the third heaven comes near,
the rainbow appears above and around the Word on a red background;
when an angel comes from the second heaven and looks at it,
the rainbow appears on a blue background;
when an angel from the lowest heaven comes and looks,
the rainbow appears on a white background.
When a good spirit comes and looks,
there is a variegated effect of light like marble.'
They were given a visual demonstration of these effects.
The custodian went on to say:
'If anyone approaches who has falsified the Word,
first of all the radiance disappears;
and if he comes close and fixes his gaze on the Word,
the surroundings change to the color of blood.
Then he is warned to go away, as it is dangerous.'

. . . falsifying the Word consists in taking truths from it
and using them to prove untrue propositions;
this is done by taking truths from the Word out of context
and murdering them.

[This section is repeated with minor changes from AR 566.
See also the post on 11/18/09.]

TCR 154 - acting and speaking

TCR 154
. . . everyone freely acts and speaks from the Lord
when he does so from the Word.

TCR 151 - What is believing in the Lord?

TCR 151
Believing in the Lord
is not just a matter of acknowledging Him,
but includes keeping His commandments.
Merely to acknowledge Him
only demands some thought on the part of the understanding,
but to keep His commandments
requires acknowledgment on the part of the will, too.
The human mind is made up of the understanding and the will.
It is the function of the understanding to think,
of the will to act.
So as long as a person's acknowledgment
is merely in thought on the part of the understanding,
he approaches the Lord with no more than half his mind;
but when he acts,
then he does so with his whole mind,
and that is what believing is.

TCR 140 - the Holy Spirit

TCR 140
Now because the Holy Spirit means the Divine truth,
and this was in the Lord Himself and was the Lord Himself (John 14:6),
and so because the Holy Spirit could not proceed from any other source,
it is said:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:39

and after His glorification:

He breathed on His disciples and said,
Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:22

The reason why the Lord breathed on the disciples and said this
was that breathing on was the external sign standing for inspiration by God;
and inspiration means being brought into contact with communities of angels.

TCR 126 - Glorification and temptations

TCR 126
The Lord had two purposes in coming into the world,
redemption and the glorification of His Human;
and by these He saved both men and angels.
These two purposes are quite distinct,
but still they are combined in effecting salvation.
The nature of redemption was . . . a battle against the hells,
their subjugation and afterwards the ordering of the heavens.
Glorification, however,
is the uniting of the Lord's Human with His Father's Divine.
This took place by stages and was completed by His passion on the cross.
For every person ought for his own part to approach God,
and the more nearly he does so,
the more closely does God on His side enter into him . . .
The reason why the actual union was fully achieved
by the passion on the cross is that it was the last temptation
which the Lord underwent in the world;
and temptations create conjunction.
In temptation it looks as if a person is left to himself,
but he is not, since God is then most closely present in his inmost,
and secretly gives him support.
When therefore anyone is victorious over temptation,
he is most inwardly conjoined with God,
and in this case the Lord was most inwardly united with God His Father.

[2] The Lord's being left to Himself,
when He suffered on the cross, is evident from His cry then:

O God, why have you abandoned me?
[Matt. 27:46]

as well as from these words of the Lord:

No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it back;
this charge I received from my Father.
[John 10:18]

These passages then can prove
that the Lord did not suffer in His Divine, but in His Human,
and then a most inward and complete union took place.
An illustration of this might be the fact that
while a person is suffering physical pain,
his soul feels nothing but is merely distressed.
But when the victory is won,
God takes away that distress,
wiping it away as one does tears from the eyes.

TCR 120, 121 - the first parts of the real redemption was the conquest of the invasive hells and the ordering of the heavens

TCR 120 [2, 3]; 121[3]
If a person spends his time with thieves or pirates,
he ends up by becoming like them;
if he lives with adulterers and whores,
he ends up by thinking adultery of no consequence.
Again if he mixes with terrorists,
he ends up by thinking nothing of using violence on anyone.
All evils are contagious,
and can be likened to a plague which infects people
simply by their being exposed to the victims' breath;
or to a cancer or gangrene which spreads,
and makes first the surrounding parts,
and then those further and further away, rot,
until the whole body is destroyed.
It is the pleasures of evil,
to which everyone is prone from birth, that cause this.

. . . but for the redemption effected by the Lord
no one could be saved, nor could the angels remain unharmed

The . . . reason why the Lord redeemed the angels too
is that not only every man, but also every angel,
is held back from evil by the Lord and kept in a state of good.
For no one, whether angel or man,
is of himself in a state of good,
but all good is from the Lord.

TCR 113 - the New Church and the Lord's Prayer

TCR 113
. . . the idea of God enters into every part of religion,
and it is this which establishes conjunction with God,
and that conjunction is the means of salvation.
We in heaven recite that prayer every day,
just as people on earth do;
but then we do not think of God the Father, since He is invisible,
but we think of Him in His Divine Human, since in this He is visible.
In this you call Him Christ, we call Him the Lord;
thus the Lord is our Father in the heavens.

. . . at the present time a new church is being established by the Lord,
which is meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation.
In this church worship will be directed to the Lord alone,
as it is in heaven,
and thus all will be accomplished
which the Lord's Prayer contains from beginning to end.

TCR 109 - like a morning without clouds

TCR 109 [3]
The difference between the state of the church
before and after the Lord's coming
can also be compared to a person
who reads a book at night by the light of the moon and stars,
and one who does so in sunlight.
It is crystal clear that in the former light,
which is only white, the eye strays;
but it does not in the latter light,
which is flamelike.
Therefore we read of the Lord:

The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel talked to me.
He is like the light of morning,
when the sun rises,
a morning without clouds.
2 Sam. 23:3, 4

TCR 104 & 105 - preparation for Easter

HIS PROGRESS TOWARDS UNION WAS HIS STATE OF EXINANITION,
AND THE UNION ITSELF IS HIS STATE OF GLORIFICATION.

TCR 104

It is well known in the church that when the Lord was in the world He underwent two states, which are known as exinanition and glorification. The earlier state, that of exinanition, is described in many passages of the Word, especially in the Psalms of David, and also in the Prophets, in detail in Isaiah chapter 53, where we read that He emptied His soul to the point of death (Isa. 53:12). This same state is that of His humility before the Father, for in that state He prayed to the Father, and says that He is doing the Father's will, and He ascribes all that He did and said to the Father. His praying to the Father is evident from these passages: Matt. 26:39, 42*; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32-39; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 22:41-44; John 17:9, 15, 20. His doing the Father's will: John 4.34; 5:30. His ascribing to the Father all that He did and said: John 8:26-28; 12:49, 50; 14:10. Indeed, He cried out on the cross: 'My God, my God, why are you abandoning me?' (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Moreover, if He had not been in this state, He could not have been crucified.

The state of glorification is the state of being united. He was in this state when He was transfigured before His three disciples, and when He performed the miracles, and each time He said that the Father and He were one, that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that all things of the Father's were His. After their complete union He said that He had power over all flesh (John 17:2); and all power in heaven and upon earth (Matt. 28:18), and much besides

TCR 105
The Lord had to undergo these two states of exinanition and glorification because progress towards union is not possible by any other way, since it is in accordance with Divine order, and this is immutable. Divine order requires that a person should adjust himself to receive God, and prepare himself as a receiver and dwelling-place for God to enter into and live as in His temple. This a person must do of himself while still acknowledging that it is from God. He must make this acknowledgment, because he does not feel the presence and working of God, although it is God who by His intimate presence performs all the good of love and all the truth of faith in a person. Every person must and will advance in accordance with this order, if he is to become spiritual instead of natural. The Lord advanced in the same way in order to make His natural human Divine; it was for this reason that He prayed to the Father, did His will, attributed to Him all that He did and said, and on the cross uttered the words 'My God, my God, why are you abandoning me?' For in that state God appears to be absent. But after this state comes another, which is a state of being linked with God. In this state a man behaves in the same way, but then does so from God; nor does he then need, as he did previously, to attribute to God all the good which he wills and does, and all the truth which he thinks and speaks, because this acknowledgment is written on his heart, and consequently is inwardly in every action he does and every word he utters. In the same way the Lord united Himself with His Father, and the Father united Himself with Him; in short, the Lord glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, in just the same way as He regenerates a person, that is, makes him spiritual. [2] Every person who becomes spiritual instead of natural passes through two states, the first of which leads to the second, and so from the world to heaven, as will be fully proved in the chapters on free will, charity and faith, reformation and regeneration. All I shall say here is that in the first state, that called reformation, a person has full freedom to act as his understanding argues; and in the second, the state of regeneration, he has the same freedom, but he then wills and acts, thinks and speaks under the influence of a new love and a new intelligence, which are given him by the Lord. For in the first state the understanding plays the leading role and the will the second, in the second state the will plays the leading role and the understanding the second. But still it is the understanding which acts from the will, not the will which acts by means of the understanding. The linking of good and truth, charity and faith, and the internal and external man, takes place in exactly the same way.

TCR 96 - righteousness

TCR 96
The Lord enters into every person with these,
(Divine Love and Divine Wisdom)
but unless that person lives in accordance with order,
though he has that life within him,
it contributes nothing to his salvation,
giving him merely the ability to understand truth and to do good.
Living in accordance with order
is living in accordance with God's commandments.
When a person so lives and acts,
he acquires righteousness for himself,

. . . righteousness is acquired the more a person applies it,
and he applies righteousness,
the more the love of what is right and true
inspires his dealings with his neighbor.
Righteousness dwells in the actual good,
or the actual service, which he performs.
For the Lord says that every tree is recognized by its fruit.
We recognize another person by his actions,
if we pay attention to the end and purpose of what he wills,
and the intention or cause behind his actions.
This is what all the angels observe,
and so do all the wise people in our world.

TCR 85, 86 - the power of the Divine Truth

TCR 85
There are two factors which make up the essence of God,
the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom,
or, what is the same thing, the Divine Good and the Divine Truth. . .
The same pair is meant in the Word by Jehovah God;
Jehovah means the Divine Love or the Divine Good,
God the Divine Wisdom or the Divine Truth. . .
Where the subject is the Divine Good, the name Jehovah is used,
where it is the Divine Truth, God;
and where both are meant, He is called Jehovah God.

TCR 86
The reason Jehovah God came down into the world as the Divine Truth
was so that He could effect redemption.
Redemption was the conquest of the hells,
the ordering of the heavens,
and afterwards the establishment of a church.
To achieve these aims the Divine Good is not powerful enough,
but the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good is.
Divine Good regarded in itself is like a rounded point on a sword,
or like a blunt piece of wood, or a bow without arrows.
But the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good
is like a sharpened sword,
and like a piece of wood pointed to make a spear,
and like a bow with arrows, all of which are potent against enemies. . .
There was no other way in which the falsities and evils,
in which the whole of hell was and perpetually is plunged,
could be attacked, defeated and conquered
except through the Divine Truth coming from the Word.
There was no other way in which a new heaven could be founded,
formed and set in order, as was then done.
There was no other way in which a new church
could be established on earth.
Moreover, all the strength, all the might and power of God
belongs to the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good.
This was the reason why Jehovah God
came down as the Divine Truth,
which is the Word.

TCR 81 - knowledge of the Lord surpasses in excellence all other kinds of knowledge

TCR 81
The previous chapter dealt with God the Creator,
and at the same time with creation;
this chapter will deal with the Lord the Redeemer,
and at the same time with redemption. . .

We say 'the Lord' and not 'Jehovah'
because the Jehovah of the Old Testament
is called the Lord in the New Testament,
as can be established from the following passages . . .:

Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah;
you shall love Jehovah God
with your whole heart and your whole soul.
Deuteronomy 6:4, 5

but in Mark:

The Lord our God is one Lord;
you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart
and your whole soul.
Mark 12:29, 30

Also in Isaiah:

Prepare the way for Jehovah,
make smooth in the desert a path for our God.
Isaiah 40:3

but in Luke:

You shall go before the face of the Lord
to prepare the way for Him.
Luke 1:76

and in other passages.
The Lord too ordered His disciples to call Him Lord . . .
The reason was that the Jews did not dare
to name Jehovah on account of His holiness,
and because 'Jehovah' means the Divine Being (Esse),
which existed from eternity,
while the Human, which He took upon Himself in time,
was not that Being. . .
For this reason, here and in what follows
by the Lord we understand Jehovah in His Human.

[2] Now since knowledge of the Lord surpasses in excellence
all other kinds of knowledge known to the church, or even in heaven,
I shall adopt an ordered arrangement
to bring that knowledge to light, as follows:

(i) Jehovah, the Creator of the Universe,
came down and took upon Himself human form,
in order to redeem and save mankind.

(ii) He came down as the Divine Truth, which is the Word,
yet He did not separate the Divine Good from it.

(iii) He took upon Himself human form
in accordance with His Divine order.

(iv) The Human by which He brought Himself into the world
is what is called the Son of God.

(v) The Lord by acts of redemption made Himself righteousness.

(vi) By the same acts He united Himself with the Father,
and the Father with Him. This too was in accordance with Divine order.

(vii) Thus God became man, and man God, in one person.

(viii) His progress towards union was His state of exinanition,
and the union itself is His state of glorification.

(ix) From this time on
no one from Christian countries can come into heaven,
unless he believes in the Lord God the Saviour,
and approaches Him alone.

TCR 76, 78 - God the Creator of the universe

TCR 76 [2, 4]
. . .the universe was created by Jehovah God
by means of the sun in the midst of which He is;
and because love cannot exist except together with wisdom,
that the universe was created by Jehovah God
from His love by means of His wisdom.

But it should be kept in mind
that the love and wisdom,
which in God make one,
are not love and wisdom in the abstract,
but are in Him as substance.
For God is the very, sole and consequently prime substance and essence,
which is and continues in existence in itself.

TCR 78 [3]
For God is love itself and wisdom itself,
and His love contains infinite affections,
and His wisdom infinite perceptions;
all the things to be seen upon earth
are correspondences of these affections and perceptions.
This is the origin of birds and animals, trees and shrubs,
crops and grain, plants and grasses.
For God has no extension, but is everywhere in space;
so He fills the universe from first to last.
Because He is omnipresent,
there are such correspondences
of the affections of His love and wisdom
throughout the natural world.

TCR 72, 73 - laws of order

TCR 72 [2], 73[2-3]
. . . almighty God is order itself,
and that there are myriads of laws of order,
as many in fact as there are truths in the Word,
and God cannot act contrary to them,
because if He did so,
He would be acting against Himself,
and so not only contrary to righteousness
but contrary to His own omnipotence.

The laws of order assigned to a person are
that he should acquire for himself truths from the Word,
and think about them in a natural way,
and, so far as he is able, rationally,
thus equipping himself with a natural faith.
The laws of order on God's side then are
that He approaches the person,
fills the truths with His Divine light,
and so fills the person's natural faith,
which is merely factual knowledge and strongly held opinion,
with the Divine essence.
Thus, and only thus, does it become a saving faith.

It is similar with charity; but let me briefly give some examples.
God's laws prevent Him from forgiving anyone's sins,
except to the extent that the person
in accordance with his laws
refrains from committing them.
God cannot spiritually regenerate a person,
except in so far as the person
in accordance with his laws regenerates himself naturally.
God is constantly striving to regenerate and so save people,
but He cannot achieve this
unless the person prepares himself to receive God,
and so smooths the way and opens the door to Him.

TCR 68, 69[3] - the Lord's Power and equilibrium

TCR 68, 69[3]
The reason a person has from Divine Omnipotence
power against evils and falsities to the extent
that he lives in accordance with the Divine order
is that no one, except God alone,
can resist evils and the falsities they produce.
For all evils and their falsities come from hell,
and there they hold together as a unit,
exactly as all kinds of good and so truths do in heaven.
. . . in the sight of God the whole of heaven is like one person,
and in the opposite case hell is like one monstrous giant.
Thus acting against one evil and its falsity
is like taking on that monstrous giant or all hell.
No one can do this except God, because He is omnipotent.

Every person, as long as he lives in the world,
treads a path mid-way between heaven and hell;
and he is in equilibrium, that is,
he has free will to look up to God or down to hell.
If he looks up to God,
he acknowledges that all wisdom comes from God,
and his spirit is really present among the angels in heaven.
The person who looks down,
as everyone does whose evil puts him under the power of falsities,
is in his spirit really among the devils in hell.

TCR 57 - God is Good Itself

TCR 57
God is omnipotent, because He can do everything of Himself,
and all others derive their power to act from Him.
Being able and willing are for Him one,
and since He does not will anything but good,
He cannot therefore do anything but good.

Moreover, God is Good itself,
so that when He does good He acts within Himself,
and He cannot step out of Himself.
From this it is plain that His omnipotence progresses and works
within the sphere of action of good,
and this is infinite.

[2] From these facts it can be established
that the Divine omnipotence can in no wise depart from itself
so as to make contact with any evil, nor promote it from itself,
for evil turns itself away.
This is how it comes about
that evil is totally separated from God and cast into hell;
and between hell and heaven, where He is, yawns a gaping chasm.
These few considerations can reveal the madness of those who think,
even more believe, more still teach,
that God can damn anyone, curse him, cast him into hell,
predestine his soul to eternal death, avenge injuries,
be angry or punish anyone.
He is not even able to turn His face away from a person and frown upon him.
These and any actions of this kind would be contrary to His essence,
and what is contrary to that is contrary to Himself.