The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

By Emanuel Swedenborg

(First published 1763)

A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers.

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Translator’s Table of Contents

PREFACE

The Holy Scripture Throughout Has the Lord As Its Subject, and the Lord Embodies the Word. 1

The Statement That the Lord Fulfilled All of the Law Means That He Fulfilled All of the Word. 8

The Lord Came into the World to Conquer the Hells and Glorify His Humanity; and the Suffering of the Cross Was the Final Battle by Which He Fully Overcame the Hells and Fully Glorified His Humanity. 12

By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them. 15

An Imputation of the Lord’s Merit Is Nothing Else Than the Forgiveness of Sins Following Repentance. 18

In Relation to His Divine Humanity the Lord Is Called the Son of God, and in Relation to the Word the Son of Man. 19

The Lord Made His Humanity Divine from the Divine in Him, and So Was United with the Father. 29

The Lord Is God Himself, the Origin of and Subject of the Word. 37

There Is One God, and the Lord Is That God. 45

The Holy Spirit Is the Divinity Emanating from the Lord, and It Is the Lord Himself. 46

The New Church Is Meant by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. 62

PREFACE

Several years ago we published the following five short works:

1. Heaven and Hell.

2. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem.

3. The Last Judgment.

4. The White Horse.

5. The Planets and Earths in the Universe.

In them we presented to view a number of things hitherto unknown.

Now, by command of the Lord, who has been revealed to me, I am to publish the following:

- The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

- The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture.

- A Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem Based on the Ten Commandments.

- The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith.

- A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment.

- Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence.

- Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Infinity and Eternity.

- Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom.

- Angelic Wisdom Regarding Life.

We say The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, but we mean doctrine for the New Church, a church which is today being established by the Lord. For the former church has reached its end, as can be seen from what we said in the short work, The Last Judgment 33-39, and from what we are going to say later in the short works just named.

The fact that the New Jerusalem to come after the Judgment, as foretold in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation, means the New Church may be seen in the final section here below.

29. The Lord Made His Humanity Divine from the Divine in Him, and So Was United with the Father

The doctrine of the church, accepted throughout the Christian world, is this:

...our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.... But although He is God and man, still there are not two Christs but one, being one because the Divine took to Himself a humanity; yet still completely one, for...He is one person. For as soul and body form one person, so God and man are one Christ....

These words are taken from the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed, which has been accepted throughout the Christian world. They constitute the essential teaching there regarding the union of the Divine and human in the Lord. Everything else said in this same doctrine regarding the Lord — this we will explain in its own section.

It is apparent, clearly, from the above citation, that it accords with the Creed of the Christian Church to say that the Divine and the human in the Lord are not two entities but one, as soul and body are one person; and that it was the Divine in Him that took on the human.

[2] It follows from this that the Divine cannot be separated from the human, nor the human from the Divine, as separating them would be like separating soul and body.

The reality of this is something everyone acknowledges who reads what we have cited above in nos. 19 and 21 from the two Gospels that tell of the Lord’s birth, namely from Luke 1:26-35 and from Matthew 1:18-25. These descriptions make clear that Jesus was conceived of Jehovah God and born from the virgin Mary, thus that the Divine was present in Him and was His soul.

Now because His soul was the Divinity itself of the Father, it follows that His body or humanity became also Divine; for when one element is Divine, the other must be also.

In this way and no other are the Father and Son one — the Father being in the Son, and the Son in the Father —and all things of the Son are the Father’s, and all things of the Father are the Son’s, as the Lord Himself teaches in His Word.

[3] But how the union was formed — this we will tell point by point as follows:

1. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah.

2. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, assumed a humanity in order to save mankind.

3. He made His humanity Divine from the Divinity in Him.

4. He made His humanity Divine through temptations or trials that He underwent.

5. The complete union of the Divine and the human in Him was achieved by His suffering of the cross, which was the last of those temptations or trials.

6. He gradually put off the humanity received from the mother and put on a humanity from the Divinity in Him, which is the Divine humanity and the Son of God.

7. Thus God became human in final elements as well as in first ones.