Divine Love and Divine Wisdom

Since physical objects can only be seen within space, the spiritual world—where spirits and angels live—appears to have spaces similar to those on earth. However, these are not actual spaces but appearances. They are not fixed and stationary as they are on earth; they can be lengthened, shortened, changed, and varied. Because they cannot be determined by measurement, they cannot be understood in that world through any natural way of thinking, but only through a spiritual way of thinking. To a spiritual mind, distances of space are nothing other than distances of goodness or distances of truth, which are the affinities meaning: spiritual attractions or connections and similarities based on people's inner states.

8. From this, it may appear that a person cannot understand how the Divine is everywhere and yet not in space if they only use a natural way of thinking. Yet, angels and spirits clearly understand this. Consequently, a human being can also understand it if they are willing to admit some spiritual light into their thoughts. The reason a person can understand it is that the body does not think—the spirit does. Thus, it is the spiritual part, not the natural part, that performs the thinking.

9. However, the reason many do not understand this is that they love what is natural. Therefore, they will not elevate their understanding into spiritual light. Those who will not do this cannot think of God except in terms of space; and to think of God in terms of space is to think only of the physical extension of nature. It is necessary to establish this point first, because without a knowledge and perception that the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood about the divine life (which is the love and wisdom treated here). Without this, very little—if anything—can be understood concerning divine providence, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, infinity, and eternity, which will be discussed in their proper order.

10. It has been said that in the spiritual world, spaces and distances appear just as they do in the natural world. But these are appearances according to spiritual affinities, which come from love and wisdom, or goodness and truth. This is why the Lord, even though He is everywhere in the heavens with the angels, nevertheless appears high above them as a sun. Since the reception of love and wisdom creates an affinity with Him, those heavens where the angels have a closer affinity through reception appear nearer to Him than those where the affinity is more remote. This is also why the heavens (of which there are three) are distinct from each other, as are the societies within each heaven. Likewise, the hells beneath them are remote according to how much they reject love and wisdom. The same is true for humanity: the Lord is present with every person across the entire globe, and this is solely because the Lord is not limited by space.

11. THAT GOD IS TRULY HUMAN. original: "Very Man"; from the Latin Verus Homo, meaning God is the absolute or true Human Being, the source of all human qualities. In all the heavens, there is no other concept of God than that of a Human Being. The reason for this is that heaven, as a whole and in every part, is in form like a human, and the Divine—