10786. They added that they also become confused when any such person tells them that they ought to have faith in and to believe the things he tells them, and that in answer to him they say that they do not know what faith is or what believing is, since they perceive intuitively that something is true. For they belonged to the Lord's celestial kingdom, where intuitive perception gives everyone a knowledge of those truths which with us are called matters of faith; for they are enlightened by the Lord, in a different way from those who belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom. I was also allowed to see that their nature was such from the fiery source from which they received their ideas. Whenever there is talk about truths those who belong to the Lord's celestial kingdom say no more than 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no'. They never reason about truths, whether they are such or not. These are the ones about whom the Lord says,

Your words shall be Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil ¹ . [Matthew 5:37.]

This explains why those spirits said that they did not know what having faith or believing was. They consider this to be like someone saying to a companion who sees houses or trees with his own eyes that he ought to have faith or believe that they are houses or trees, when he can see clearly that that is what they are. Such is the character of those who belong to the Lord's celestial kingdom, and such was the character of those angelic spirits. We told them that there are few on our planet who possess intuitive perception, because people there learn truths when they are young but do not practise them. For a person has two powers of mind, called the understanding and the will. Some do not let truths penetrate any further than their memory and slightly beyond into their understanding, but not into their life, that is, into their will; and they are ones who, because they cannot receive any enlightenment or insight from the Lord, talk of the need for things to be believed or for people to have faith. They also reason about whether such things are true or not, having no wish indeed to perceive them with any insight or power of understanding. They talk in those ways because the truths that reside with them lack any light from heaven, and to those who see things without light from heaven falsities can appear as truths, and truths as falsities. Consequently very many on our planet have become afflicted with a blindness so great that even though a person does not practise truths, that is, lead a life in keeping with them, they nevertheless say that he can be saved by faith alone.

Footnotes:

10. Verse 2. Who bare witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, signifies to those who in heart acknowledge Divine truth, and the Divine of the Lord in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "bearing witness," as meaning to acknowledge in heart (of which hereafter), and from the signification of "the Word," or speech of God, as meaning Divine truth (SeeArcana Coelestia 4692, 5075, 9987); and from the signification of "[the testimony of] Jesus Christ," as meaning the acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine in His Human. This is signified by "the testimony of Jesus Christ," because "to testify" signifies to acknowledge in heart, and to acknowledge Jesus Christ in heart is to acknowledge the Divine in His Human; for he that acknowledges the Lord, and does not at the same time acknowledge the Divine in His Human, does not acknowledge the Lord; since His Divine is in His Human, and not out of it; for the Divine is in Its Human as the soul is in the body, consequently to think of the Lord's Human, and not at the same time of His Divine, is like thinking of a man abstractly from his soul or life, which is not thinking of a man.

[2] That the Lord's Divine is in His Human, and that together they are one person, the doctrine received throughout the Christian world teaches; which teaching is as follows: "Although Christ is God and Man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; one, but not by a change of the Divine into the Human, but the Divine took the Human to Itself. Altogether one, not by confusion of the two natures, but by unity of person; for as soul and body make one man, so God and Man are one Christ" (Athanasian Creed). From this it is manifest, moreover, that those who separate the Divine into three persons, when they think of the Lord as a second person, ought to think of both together, the Human and the Divine; for it is said that they are a single person, and that they are one, as soul and body are. Therefore those that think otherwise do not think of the Lord; and those that do not think of the Lord in that way are unable to think of the Divine that is called the Father's, for the Lord saith:

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father but through Me (John 14:6).

Since this acknowledgment is signified by the "testimony of Jesus Christ," it is said that:

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

"The spirit of prophecy" is the life and soul of doctrine (that "spirit" in the internal sense of the Word, signifies life or soul, may be seen Arcana Coelestia 5222, 9281, 9818; and that "prophecy" signifies doctrine, n. 2534, 7269); and the acknowledgment of the Lord is the very life or soul of all doctrine in the church. But of this more will be said in what follows.

[3] To "bear witness" is to acknowledge in heart, because spiritual things are treated of; and no one can bear witness respecting spiritual things except from the heart, because from no other source does he perceive that they are so. To bear witness of things that have existence in the world is to bear witness from knowledge, or from memory and thought, because the man has so seen or heard; but it is otherwise with things spiritual, for these fill the whole life and constitute it. The spirit of man, in which his life primarily resides, is nothing else than his will or his love, and his understanding and faith therefrom, and "heart" in the Word signifies the will and love, and understanding and faith therefrom. From this it is evident whence it is that by "bearing witness" in the spiritual sense, is meant to acknowledge in heart. Since by the "heart" is signified the good of love, and this alone is what acknowledges Divine truth, and the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and since that good is signified by "John," it is also said by John that he "bears witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ." So also in another place:

And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye may believe (John 19:35);

and in another place:

This is the disciple that beareth witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true (John 21:24).