THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, WHO IS JEHOVAH, CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS THEREOF FROM HIMSELF, AND NOT FROM NOTHING

DLW 282. It is known throughout the world, and acknowledged by every wise man from interior perception, that God, who is the Creator of the universe, is One; and it is known from the Word that God the Creator of the universe is called " Jehovah," which is from the verb to be, because He alone is. That the Lord from eternity is that Jehovah is shown by many statements from the Word in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord. Jehovah is called the Lord from eternity, since Jehovah assumed a Human that He might save men from hell; He then commanded His disciples to call Him Lord. Therefore in the New Testament Jehovah is called "the Lord;" as can be seen from this:--

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deut. 6:5);

but in the New Testament:--

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Matt. 22:35).

It is the same in other passages in the Gospels, taken from the Old Testament.

DLW 283. Every one who thinks from clear reason sees that the universe was not created out of nothing, for he sees that not anything can be made out of nothing; since nothing is nothing and to make anything out of nothing is a contradiction, and a contradiction is contrary to the light of truth, which is from Divine Wisdom; and whatever is not from Divine Wisdom is not from Divine Omnipotence. Every one who thinks from clear reason sees also that all things have been created out of a Substance that is Substance in itself for that is Esse itself, out of which every thing that is can take form; and since God alone is Substance in itself, and therefore Esse itself, it is evident that from this source alone is the formation of things. Many have seen this, because reason causes them to see it; and yet they have not dared to confirm it, fearing lest they might thereby be led to think that the created universe is God, because from God, or that nature is from itself, and consequently that the inmost of nature is what is called God. For this reason, although many have seen that the formation of all things is from God alone and out of his Esse, yet they have not dared to go beyond their first thought on the subject, lest their understanding should become entangled in a so-called Gordian knot, beyond the possibility of release. Such release would be impossible, because their thought of God, and of the creation of the universe by God, has been in accordance with time and space, which are properties of nature; and from nature no one can have any perception of God and of the creation of the universe; but everyone whose understanding is in any interior light can have a perception of nature and of its creation out of God, because God is not in time and space. That the Divine is not in space, see (n. 7-10); that the Divine apart from space fills all the spaces of the universe (n. 69-72); and that the Divine apart from time is in all time (n. 73-76). In what follows it will be seen that although God has created the universe and all things thereof out of Himself, yet there is nothing whatever in the created universe that is God; and other things besides, which will place this matter in its proper light.

DLW 284. Part First of this Work treated of God, that He is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom; that He is life, and that He is substance and form, which is the very and only Esse. Part Second treated of the spiritual sun and its world, and of the natural sun and its world, and of the creation of the universe with all things thereof from God by means of these two suns. Part Third treated of degrees in which are each and all things that have been created. Part Fourth will now treat of the creation of the universe from God. All these subjects are now explained, because the angels have lamented before the Lord, that when they look upon the world they see nothing but darkness, and among men no knowledge of God, of heaven, or of the creation of nature, for their wisdom to rest upon.

Divine Love and Wisdom

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Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

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