Sunday, 6 October 2013

Philippians 2:10 At the name of Jesus...

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; -Philippians 2:10 King James Version (KJV)

True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1771], tr. by John C. Ager [1906] at sacred-texts.com

297.
...the name of God, because it is holiness itself, must be used continually in the holy things pertaining to the church, as in prayers, psalms, and all worship, also in preaching, and in writing on ecclesiastical subjects. This is so because God is in all things of religion, and when He is solemnly invoked He is present through His name and hears. In such ways is the name of God hallowed. That the name of Jehovah God is in itself holy is evident from that name, in that the Jews since their earliest age have not dared and do not dare to utter the name Jehovah; and for their sake the writers of the Gospels and the apostles were unwilling to use it, and used the name Lord instead, as is evident from various passages transferred from the Old Testament into the New, where the name Lord is used instead of Jehovah (as in Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27, compared with Deut. 6:5, and other passages). That the name of Jesus is in like manner holy is known from the saying of the Apostle that at this name every knee is bowed or should be bowed in heaven and on earth; and furthermore from this, that no devil in hell can utter that name...

852.
I foresee that many who read... the chapters in this work will believe them to be inventions of the imagination. But I affirm in truth that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and heard in any sleeping state of mind, but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach those things which will belong to His New Church, which is meant by "the New Jerusalem" in the Apocalypse [or Book of Revelation.] For this purpose He has opened the interiors of my mind or spirit, whereby I have been permitted to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with men, ...during twenty-seven years. Who in the Christian world could have known anything about Heaven and Hell, had it not pleased the Lord to open the sight of someone's spirit, and show and teach him? That such things as are described... do appear in the heavens is made clear by the like things seen and described by John in the Apocalypse, also in the Word of the Old Testament by the prophets. ...[3] ...From these and many other passages in the Word it is evident that those things which exist in the spiritual world have appeared to many, both before and since the Lord's coming. What marvel, then, that they should be seen now also, when a New Church is commencing, or when the New Jerusalem is descending from heaven? ...XV. In the spiritual world it is unlawful to say anything except what one thinks; if he does, the hypocrisy is distinctly manifest to the ear. In hell, therefore, no one can utter the name Jesus, because Jesus signifies salvation. In this way an experiment was made to ascertain how many in the Christian world at this day [1771] believe that Christ even as to His Human is God. Therefore, when many of the clergy and laity were assembled, it was proposed that they say "Divine Human;" but there were scarcely any who were able to draw forth from the thought these two words at once, and so to utter them. It was proved in their presence by many things out of the Word, that the Lord even as to His Human is God as by the following: (Matt. 28:18; John 1:1, 2, 14; 17:2; Col. 2:9; 1 John 5:20; and in other places also); still they were not able to utter the words Divine Human,- and, what seemed surprising, neither were the Evangelicals able to do this, although their orthodoxy teaches that in Christ God is Man and Man is God; and still more, neither could the monks, although they most devoutly adore the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. From all this it was ascertained that Christians at the present day for the most part... if they adore Christ as God, are hypocrites (n. 111)... 


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