The Visible God
Rev. Erik Sandstrom
(London,
August, 1963)
THE LORD THE
REDEEMER
The essential burden of
the opening chapters in The True Christian Religion is the
revealing of the Visible God.
The whole work, whose
title page declares that it contains The Universal Theology of the
New Church is in fact designed for the setting forth of that one
supreme doctrine. As worded in No. 108: The principal object of this
work is to show that the Divine Trinity is united in the Lord-- that
is to say, in the Lord Incarnate, the Lord in the Flesh. thus the Lord
as standing forth to view in the world. The phrase itself, however,
The Visible God, is not introduced until the closing chapter of the
work, where we read: This New Church is the crown of all the Churches
which have hitherto been on the earth, because it will worship one
visible God, in whom is the invisible God, as the soul is in the body
(787). Every chapter should be read with this doctrine in view, in
fact every page of the Writings should be so read: for it is the
paramount doctrine, the doctrine that unites all other doctrines into
one scope, or under one head, so as to make of all the countless
individual doctrines one Universal Theology.
The Omnipresence of the
Supreme Doctrine
The omnipresence of the
doctrine concerning the Visible God in the work. The True Christian
Religion, also becomes manifest on a closer examination of the
very structure of that work itself. It is, of course, built up
according to Divine order. We find first, in the opening three
chapters. the doctrine of the Lord itself. Next we have the Word and
its summary, the Decalogue, the Word being the medium of conjunction
between the Lord and His children. Afterwards there is the response
with men, presented in the chapters on Faith and Charity and Good
Works. These things, mentioned so far, make as it were a completed
series, a whole by itself; for they present God, His mode of
conjunction, and the conjunction itself. But then the particulars
involved are opened up step by step. The nature of mans response comes
first, namely in the chapters dealing with Free Agency, Repentance,
and Reformation and Regeneration. This having been explained, there
follows a description of how the Lord inflows with His good and truth
as and when the mind of man has been prepared for reception; and this
is shown in the chapters on Imputation and on the Two Sacraments.
These chapters may be said to describe the process itself whereby
conjunction between the Visible God and man is effected, and also the
conditions for the process to commence. And finally there is the
summing up chapter, dealing with the end of that age which has not
worshipped the one visible God, and with the crowning age to come
which is to be such because it will worship one visible God, in whom
is the invisible God, as the soul in the body.
The Divine and the
Human
We have seen that the
opening chapter of The True Christian Religion deals with the
Divine Itself, thus with the Invisible God who is in the Visible God
as the soul is in its body. Also with the handiwork issuing forth from
this Divine Itself, namely Creation. This initial presentation of the
Divine--its Esse and Existere as well as its Essence of Love and
Wisdom--is necessary, so that it might be known not only that our God
is infinite and eternal in Himself. but also and particularly who it
was who assumed the Human and came into the world. Accordingly we find
the following opening words in the chapter, The Lord the Redeemer. In
the previous chapter we treated of God the Creator and also of
creation: but in this chapter we shall treat of the Lord the Redeemer
and also of redemption: and in the following chapter we shall treat of
the Holy Spirit and also of the Divine operation. By the Lord the
Redeemer we mean Jehovah in the Human; for it will be shown in the
following pages that Jehovah Himself descended and assumed the Human
in order to effect our redemption. (81.) The relationship between the
opening chapter and the two that follow after it, is therefore that
the first chapter describes the Divine of the Lords Human--and indeed
of necessity in abstract terms--whereas the succeeding chapters
present to the reader the Human assumed by that Divine, and the
Operation of that Human from the Divine within it. In this manner it
is possible for the reader to combine the doctrines and form for
himself a true concept of the Divine Human.
That concept is not just
a matter of knowledge. Anyone can remember certain teachings, and can
also say within himself: This sounds right, I accept this. But that is
not enough. The doctrine must become a living vision before the
understanding itself, so that it is possible for the man to think from
the doctrine, and also to act from it. No man can work in co-operation
with that which he does not understand--unless of course we mean blind
co-operation. Knowledge alone belongs to the external man, and it is
altogether possible for it to be kept there without the internal being
touched. It is the internal man that understands and loves. If
therefore the Divine Human is to be God-with-us it must be God with
the internal man in us. In his internal, man must see the Lord before
himself constantly, even as the angels perpetually see the Sun of
heaven before their eyes. If that be so, then the words the Divine
Human become infinitely more than just an interesting phrase. They
become a summary expression of the faith of the heart itself. And the
external knowledges become infilled with the vision of the internal
man.
In one of the Memorable
Relations adjoined to our chapter an experiment in the spiritual world
is recounted. Certain newcomers, called together, were asked if they
could say. Divine Human: and it was found that not one of the clergy
present was able to do so, but some of the laymen were able. This
being found, some selected passages from the Word were read to them,
showing that all the things that belonged to the Divine Itself, or the
Father, also belonged to His Human, called the Son. Then we read on:
They were requested to bear in mind that, according to these passages,
Christ is God of heaven and earth in respect of His Divine and of His
Human, and so to utter the words. Divine Human; but still they could
not, and they said that, although from these passages they had in
their understanding a certain idea of it, there was no acknowledgment,
and therefore they were unable to pronounce the words. (111:4.) It is
further told that neither could they speak the name Jesus, although
they were able to say both Christ and God the Father. The reason for
this, as given, was that they had prayed to God the Father for the
sake of the Son, and not to the Saviour Himself; and Jesus means
Saviour (111:3).
All of this is quite
revealing, especially if we keep in mind that they were asked to speak
from their thought concerning the Human of the Lord (111:4). That
thought belonged to their internal man, and it had had no
enlightenment. It had understood nothing whatever concerning the true
nature of the Lord, and consequently nothing whatever of the Christian
Gospel. And let no man think within himself that their inability to
understand was due merely to an intellectual shortcoming, or to
improper instruction, for in this as in all similar regards these
words are true: Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the
light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in
God. (John 3:20, 21). Therefore let every man who would live
spiritually apply his mind to the doctrine of the Divine Human, the
Visible God, seeking to make his thoughts and affections into images
of this Divine Human after its likeness, and thus also causing himself
to speak and act from that doctrine. Otherwise the interior thought
will not be able to speak out the words, Divine Human, or to declare
their meaning. The emphasis on all this is in the following statement:
Hereafter no Christian can enter heaven unless he believes on the Lord
God the Saviour (107).
By contrast the case of
the Rev. John Clowes may be recounted. John Clowes, Church of England
Rector of St. Johns, Manchester, was one of the earliest receivers of
the Doctrines of the New Church. While continuing in his rectorate for
no less than sixty-two years, and never leaving the Church of England,
he was a most zealous translator of the Writings and preacher of the
new truths. It was about 1773, The True Christian Religion fell
into his hands (only about two years after its publication), and the
Rev. Samuel Noble tells of his conversion. The account is preserved in
Tafels Documents Concerning Swedenborg, vol. II. pp. 1167-68, from
which we quote:
Mr. Clowes being on a visit to
[an intimate friend, the late Richard Houghton, Esq.] was asked by
him whether he had seen Swedenborgs Latin work then recently
published, entitled Vera Christiana Religio (The True Christian
Religion): and on Mr. Clowes replying in the negative, he
exacted a promise from him that he would procure it. On returning
home, Mr. Clowes did procure it accordingly; but when he had got it,
being much engaged, he felt no desire to peruse it: and it lay many
months upon the table in his library without his looking into it.
When he was one day about to set out to spend some time at the house
of a friend who lived at some distance in the country, in passing
out of his study to mount his horse, he threw open the book which
had so long lain untouched upon the table; when his eye caught the
words Divinum Humanum (Divine Humanity). He merely thought it an odd
sort of phrase-- read no further--and rode off to his friends. He
awoke next morning with a most brilliant appearance before his eyes,
surpassing the light of the sun: and in the midst of the glory were
the words Divinum Humanum. He did not then recollect having ever
seen these words before: he thought the whole an illusion--rubbed
his eyes, got up, and made every effort to get rid of it; but in
vain. Wherever he went, or whatever he did, all day, the glorious
appearance was still before him; though he spoke of it to no one. He
retired to rest at night, and fell asleep.
When he awoke the
morning following the words Divinum Humanum, encircled by a blaze of
light still more glorious than before, immediately hashed upon his
sight. He then recollected that those were the words which he had seen
in the book on his table at home. He got up, made an apology to his
friend, and took an abrupt leave; and in his own words, no lover ever
galloped off to see his mistress with half the eagerness that he
galloped home to read about Divinum Humanum. He speedily perused the
whole book.
And here Noble quotes
Mr. Clowes testimony, the first sentence of which is as follows: The
delight produced in my mind by the first perusal of the work entitled
Vera Christiana Religio, no language could fully express.
Are the Teachings
Concerning the Lord Ethereal?
Frequently the various
doctrines in the Writings concerning the Lord are regarded as unreal
and purely ethereal things. It is believed that these teachings have
no immediate relationship to life. We want to know what to do, and
what not to do, it is said. The attitude seems to be that the things
related of the Lord concern only Himself, as if we would say: Good and
well, these things took place in the Lord. He subjugated the hells and
glorified His Human; and thereby He re-ordered the heavens; and
instituted a new Church on earth. I will be glad to believe that this
was so. But that is missing the point. For the point is not just that
it happened, but that it happened before men. It could not have taken
place at all, unless it took place visibly; that is to say, the entire
purpose of redemption would have come to nothing, if the Lord had
accomplished the works of redemption purely in secret, only to tell
subsequently that we had done them. It is not just that the Lord
achieved glory that matters (He had infinite majesty from eternity!)
but that we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Without this
understanding of the Glorifcation there is again but the dead
knowledge, the indifferent acceptance. It does not touch the heart. It
does not move the spirit of man into regeneration. Or to refer again
to the passage concerning the crown of Churches. The New Church will
become such a crown, not just because the Lord has made Himself
visible, but because the Church worships Him as He thus stands forth
to view.
The reason why the whole
point is often missed, is the failure to appreciate that the object
itself of the Lords glorification was the restoration of human
freedom. That, therefore, is also the essence of redemption. But there
can be no freedom unless there is choice, and there is no choice where
only one way of life--the way of the Prince of the world--is known. So
the Lord came to reveal the way of the Prince of peace. That gave
knowledge of the truth to men. That gave them choice. Hence His words:
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And
further: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed (John 8:32, 36). For this reason the Lord Himself never saw
His glorification as an object in itself. He had the salvation of the
human race in view, and consequently His conjunction--reciprocal
conjunction--with man. That is why we read: In the union of Himself
with the Father the Lord had in view the conjunction of Himself with
the human race, and He had this at heart because it was His love; for
all conjunction is effected by means of love, love being conjunction
itself ... [The conjunction of Himself with the human race] was His
end, and was His love, which was such that the salvation of the human
race, as beheld in the union of Himself with His Father, was to Him
the inmost joy. (AC 2034:2, 3).
Redemption and
Salvation
Now, redemption was not
salvation; but redemption was a prerequisite for salvation.
Redemption, as just said, is restoration of freedom. But salvation is
the proper use of that freedom, once given. It follows that redemption
is as it were a collective act, removing from all men the fetters of
spiritual slavery. Redemption is like the exodus from Egypt, but
salvation is like the entrance into Canaan. In the meantime there is
freedom of choice. It is possible to return in heart into Egypt. Is
not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us
alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
(Ex. 14:12).
There is a similar
distinction, in idea, between the Lord as Redeemer and the Lord as the
Holy Spirit. To receive the gift of redemption is to know, understand,
and acknowledge the Lord in His glorified Human. This gives man
choice, in that it makes it possible for him to follow the Lord. But
the reception of the operation of the Lords Spirit is the actual
following. It is the actual reception of the regenerating Divine good
in the will and the reforming Divine truth in the understanding. Hence
redemption is for the individual, a potentiality; but salvation an
actuality. Or again, as Redeemer the Lord prepares the ground for His
work as operating Spirit; and as operating Spirit He completes the
work. It follows as a corollary that the Lord is the Redeemer of all;
and that He ought to be both Redeemer and Saviour of each.
The Advent and Order
In order to safeguard
all this the Lord, in bowing the heavens and coming down" (Ps. 18:9),
must come according to His own order (Nos. 89-91). A sudden appearance
before the world in the majesty of His Divine would have forfeited the
purpose of restoring freedom. The Jews, as is well known, expected Him
to come that way; and had He done so they would have accepted Him with
joy--but without the least change of heart. In fact they would have
had no chance whatever of a change of heart, for the Lord would have
appealed to nothing but their proprial desires.
Therefore He came in
such a way as to make His very own teaching and His very own acts
constitute His claim of being in truth thee Son of God. Nothing was to
compel belief. Not even His miracles compelled belief, in the absolute
sense, for they could be explained away--and were explained away by
the leaders of the Jewish Church. They did serve a purpose lower than
the truly rational appeal which was to come only in His Second Advent
but that lower appeal was not for the purpose of compelling the
unwilling, but to prove to those who had willing hearts that His claim
of Divinity was founded on the truth. Hence He said: Believe Me that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the
very works sake (John 14:11). His works themselves became the ultimate
authority of His teaching.
His coming according to
His own order involves infinitely more than any man can fathom. It
involves, of course, the fullness of that order itself. But the
outline of it is revealed, and angels and men may be perfected in
their understanding of the particulars to eternity. What we know is
that the Lord as Creator had caused His creation to issue forth out of
His hands as it were in layer upon layer, one being derived from the
other, until the outmost layer--that of matter--was formed. These are
the discrete degrees in the terms of the Writings. And we know that He
descended through these degrees, taking them on as veilings as He
came, and this lest angels or men should be consumed by His presence.
We know also that with regard to the birth of an ordinary man We the
soul the finite soul, is conveyed by means of a human father, and that
the Divine life flows into that soul; but that in this one case that
Divine life entered into the virgin without the human medium,
enkindling life in the waiting ovum by its immediate presence. and the
more effectively so, since there was no imperfect covering to limit
the force of life itself descending.
We know further that He
caused Himself to grow up like other men. He was an infant as an
infant, a boy as a boy, as we read: But with this sole difference,
that He passed through those progressive states sooner, more fully,
and more perfectly than others (No. 89. Italics added). In this way He
not only caused Himself to reach out from His own Human for the Divine
truth and the Divine food, thus in His Human altogether as of Himself:
but in addition the caused the truth He took to Himself and the good
that He made His own to stand forth to men little by little. For as He
gained, so He gave. It goes without saying, that He gained more than
any man or angel could ever receive from Him; but so great was
nevertheless His love, that He constantly wished to give, if only it
were possible, all whatsoever that He gained for Himself. The point
however is that He never gave before His own Human had taken to itself
the things He might give. In this again His glorification and the
redemption of the world were one and the same act.
The Acts of
Glorification and Redemption were the same
Let me illustrate this
by one single example: and we take the example from an incidence in
His public ministry. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
was the snaring and hypocritical question put before Him in the
presence of the people (Luke 20:26). Now, this was an ultimate
expression of temptations injected into His Human by the hells. The
sly chief priests and scribes were but the earthly spokesmen of their
masters in hell. Thus He fought within Himself against the hells, but
simultaneously He fought in the ultimate, before men, so that not only
did He conquer in temptation, but also men were able to
witness--indeed only in some small measure, but witness nevertheless,
His victory. Shew Me a penny [or the tribute money, Matt. 22:19], He
demanded. And then His question: Whose image and superscription hath
it? And when they timidly answered, Caesars, knowing full well that
the coin was Caesars royal property, He put forward a Divine truth
which is to stand for all ages, directing human behaviour: Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesars, and unto God the
things which be Gods (Luke 20:19-26). --Who can fail to see that this
was not only a Divine victory in temptation, but also at the same time
a showing forth of that victory? That not only was the Lord in the
process of glorifying His Human, but also that we beheld His glory?
His glorification was the redemption.
More in particular,
however, the work of redemption consisted of three major acts. By the
same token His glorification accomplished three major results. The
first was the subjugation of the hells. Why were the hells subjugated
as the result of His glorification? Because they lost their power with
men, in the measure that the Lord won over followers of His own. Apart
from the free-will following after Him, He had all power in heaven, on
earth, and in hell already. In His inmost Divine He was ever
omnipotent. But He had not come to crush by violence, or to snatch
away His disciples by arbitrary acts of power. He desired to reveal,
patiently and gently, that His Human itself had Divine power--power,
not over human beings deprived of their free will, but over their very
freedom. He only desired to govern by consent. And that is how the
sword of His own mouth wrought victory for Him; for it was the truth
that He taught that constantly made free; and it was those liberated
who came of their own choice from the dead to the One living, and who
walked from an old age into one that was new.
The second act was the
orderly arrangement of the heavens. This also was accomplished by the
Lords glorification, and in the measure in which He could show forth
His glory. For whatever happens on earth has immediate repercussions
in the spiritual world, and vice versa. The Lord was in the spiritual
world too. He taught there, as He taught here. He Himself said: No
man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven (John 3:13). Consequently
there was a judgment in the world of spirits, that is to say, a
separation of the evil from the good; and this, simply because the
truth made it impossible for those who were evil to deceive any longer
by feigned acts of piety and the like. That was the judgment: that the
good saw the truth, and were able to withdraw from the influence of
the evil. Now, out of those liberated a new heaven was formed and at
the same time the higher heavens, which had been disturbed in their
integrity because of the shaking and splitting foundations, were
restored to their peace. In fact, their sun shone with sevenfold
splendor then, as it did again for a similar reason at the second
advent.
And the third act of
redemption was preparation for a new spiritual Church on earth. That
Church, of course, at the first advent, was the first Christian
Church. It was built on the Word then given, the Word which was at
first the Lord Himself in the Flesh, and afterwards the inspired
written testimony of His acts and His doctrines. Thus it was then, as
ever, formed out of the free-will acceptance of the truth. This is
precisely as in the parable of the house on the rock. The Lord said:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock,
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house: and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.
(Matt. 7:24, 25).
The Lords Divine
Natural
There are many more
things, but only the chapter itself with its two sections. The Lord
the Redeemer, and Redemption, and including all the Memorable
Relations appended to illustrate by living experience the doctrinals
of the chapter--only that chapter itself can do justice to the
subject.
Suffice it, however, to
point at one or two more landmarks of doctrine. We are taught that the
Lord, by His acts of redemption, became Righteousness; and we may now
see that this also involves that the Righteousness which was in Him
from conception, and which also became His in His Human, shone forth
as a beacon to those who began to worship Him in their hearts. He
gained it, and He revealed it. --Further, that His Righteousness was
not won just by the Passion of the Cross, nor that He won it because
He died; but that it was made His own by means of constant victories
in temptation, of which the Cross was the last. Consequently, He
became Righteousness, not by once dying but by rising again and again
after every temptation, and finally and in fullness after the Cross,
because that was His last and conclusive victory. Also, that as He
fought and conquered, so He emptied out all heredity He had derived
from the mother, and in its place put on His Divine. This is what is
referred to in the teachings concerning the Lords alternate states of
exinanition and glorification (Nos. 104-06); or as the doctrine is
frequently given: the Lord put off the human from the mother, and put
on the Human from the Father. (Exinanition means emptying out.) In
this we see the wonder of the truth, that not only was the Lord
conceived of the Father, but by glorification He became born of the
Father as well (AC 2628, 2798:2 et al.).
But above all we would
point to the teaching that what the Lord took on by His incarnation
was the Divine Natural; and that it was in this that redemption was
wrought. This the Lord did not have before the Incarnation (DLW 233,
234; TCR 109) for prior to His coming into the world He had acted only
through the celestial heaven (AC 6371-72). It is in the Natural He
became the Last, the Omega, and the Ending, as He had ever been the
First, the Alpha, and the Beginning. Consequently it is in the Natural
Divine He is God with us--God present in the ultimates of order, and
speaking to men through their very natural ears, and showing Himself
as it were by means of their very natural eyes--for so He appears to
us when we read the Gospels; and so He speaks to us when we read any
form of Divine Revelation And this is the interior reason, as it is
called, why the Lord while in the world put on the Divine Natural:
namely, that from it He might enlighten not only the internal
spiritual man, but also the external natural man (No. 109). It is thus
that He has become the Visible God.
In His first advent He
put on and glorified His Human. Men saw, but dimly. In His second
advent He revealed in fullness what He had glorified. That new
Revelation too, like former Revelations, is couched in earthly
language: but it is addressed to the rational mind. It is revelation
indeed, for it is a full revealing of the things that previous forms
of the Word contained under cover. The whole mind of man is invited to
see God: the external mind, in which are the knowledges, and the
internal mind, in which is the rational. And if both of these are not
enlightened at the same time, the man remains as it were in the shadow
of darkness; but if both are so enlightened he is, as it were, in the
light of day (TCR 109).
This is what is new in
the New Church. It is new, because what the former Christian Church
might have seen at least in a small measure, it failed to see. A
Church was established which saw Divine truths, or rather which could
see them, in light (TCR 109). The Christian Church, as it is in
itself, is now just beginning. The former Church was Christian in name
only, but not in reality and essence. (TCR 668) Christianity itself is
now first beginning to dawn, and a New Church, which is meant by the
New Jerusalem in the Revelation, is now being established by the Lord,
in which God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are acknowledged as one,
because in one Person (TCR 700).
Glorified: and revealed.
With greater cause than before is it now possible to say: We beheld
His glory. That is why the Church, suffering itself to become an image
of the Visible God after His likeness, comes forth out of His hands as
the Crown of Churches.
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