True Christian Religion

is called Christian from the name of the Lord; it is called madnessThe original Latin is phrenesis, referring to a delirium or mental derangement., because human minds have been driven into such a delirium by it that they do not know whether God is one, or whether there are three. He is one in the speech of the mouth, but three in the thought of the mind, which is why the mind disagrees with its own mouth, or the thought with its own speech. From this disagreement, the result is the conclusion that there is no God. The NaturalismThe philosophical belief that everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted. prevailing today stems from nowhere else. Consider, if you please, while the mouth speaks of one and the mind thinks of three, whether they do not inwardly, along the way, cancel each other out in turn? Thus, a man hardly thinks of God otherwise—if he thinks at all—than from the mere word "God," without any sense that involves a knowledge of Him. Since the idea of God, along with every notion of Him, has been so torn apart, I wish to treat in order concerning God the Creator, the Lord the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Operator, and finally the Divine Trinity, for the purpose of repairing what has been torn apart. This occurs when human Reason is convinced by the Word and the light therefrom that there is a Divine Trinity, and that this Trinity is in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ, just as the Soul, Body, and Proceeding The "Proceeding" refers to the outward activity or influence of a person, comparable to the Holy Spirit's role in the Trinity. are in man. Thus, what is said in the Athanasian CreedA classic statement of Christian belief focused on the Trinity and the nature of Christ. remains valid: original: "Quod in Christo Deus & Homo, seu Divinum & Humanum, non sint duo, sed in una Persona; & quod sicut Anima rationalis & Caro unus est homo, ita Deus & Homo unus sit Christus." That in Christ, God and Man, or the Divine and the Human, are not two, but in one Person; and that just as the rational soul and flesh are one man, so God and Man are one Christ.

ON THE UNITY OF GOD.

5. Since the acknowledgment of God from the knowledge of Him is the very essence and soul of everything in Universal Theology, it is necessary to begin with the UNITY OF GOD, which will be demonstrated in order through the following Articles: I. That the whole Sacred Scripture, and consequently the Doctrine of the Churches in the Christian World, teach that God is one. II. That there is a universal influx into the souls of men, teaching that God exists and that He is one. III. Hence it is that in the whole world there is no nation possessing religion and sound reason that does not acknowledge a God, and that God is one. IV. That as to what that one God is, nations and peoples have differed and continue to differ for several reasons. V. That human Reason can perceive or conclude from many things in the world, if it wishes, that God exists and that He is one. VI. That unless God were one, the Universe could not have been created and preserved. VII. That the man who does not acknowledge God is excommunicated from the Church and condemned. VIII. That with a man who does not acknowledge one God, but several, nothing of the Church holds together. But these points will be unfolded individually.

6. I. THAT THE WHOLE SACRED SCRIPTURE, AND CONSEQUENTLY ALL THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCHES IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD, TEACH THAT GOD EXISTS, AND THAT HE IS ONE. The reason the whole Sacred Scripture teaches that God exists is that in its innermost parts there is nothing else but God—that is, the Divine which proceeds from God. For it was dictated by God, and nothing can proceed from God except what He is Himself, which is called the Divine; this is in its innermost parts. In the derivatives, however, which are below and come from there, that Holy Scripture is accommodated to the perception of Angels and Men; in these, there is likewise the Divine, but in another form, and in this form it is called the Divine Celestial, Spiritual, and Natural, which are nothing other than the coverings of God. For God Himself, as He is in the innermost parts of the Word, cannot be seen by any created being; for He said to Moses, when he prayed to see the glory of JehovahThe personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible., that no one can see God and live. It is the same with the innermost parts of the Word, where God is in His own Being and His own Essence; yet the Divine, which is innermost and is covered by such things as are accommodated to the perceptions of Angels and Men, shines through like Light through crystalline forms, though differently according to the state of mind which the man has formed for himself from God or from himself. To everyone who has formed the state of his mind from God, the Sacred Scripture is like a Mirror in which he sees God, but each in his own way. Truths, which...