YEHOSHUA

The doctrine of the New Church is that the Humanity which God our heavenly Father assumed to save the human race is the Son. This Humanity was inwardly divine from the Father, outwardly clothed, as to mind and body, with what belongs to infirm humanity from the mother, until by sufferings during His life and death, He was made completely perfect and fully glorified. In proportion as this glorification of the Humanity was effected, all things of divine government, and all power in heaven and on earth, were committed unto Him by the Father within Him. The Father then ruled the universe by Him, not as a passive organism, but as a conscious Divine Man. The government was on His shoulder, and of His dominion and peace there should be no end. JONATHAN BAYLEY

Jesus was a man who made some astonishing declarations and statements while He was on Earth:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

"Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” John: 6:56

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5:46-47

“The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”” John 4:25-26
 

“He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:25-27

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18

“Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:44-46

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

Now, many people believe that Jesus was just another enlightened master, a human being who through spiritual discipline attained communion with God. But, if that were the case, His claims and declarations would be pretentious to say the least.

In order to understand who Jesus really is, we must understand the spiritual meaning of the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, the name of God is YHVH (or Jehovah). At the consummation of the Israelitish Church (which is  described at the end of the Old Testament), the Hebrew  prophets  foretold that the Lord [YHVH] would come down in the flesh as the Messiah on Earth to save His people.

“BEHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 3

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

It was also foretold in the Old Testament itself that the Messiah would be rejected by the Jewish establishment. And we know that this is what actually happened.

In the New Testament, we read that Jesus was born from the egg of a human virgin, Mary. This egg was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. And, in the first verses of John, we are told who Jesus really is:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-14
 

In order to understand this passage, we must remember that God is ONE but this oneness implicitly contains three essentials like Light. Light is Heat, Radiance and Action. And, by correspondence,  Spiritual Light must be Love, Wisdom and Power. Although there has arisen many misconceptions about the Holy Trinity, this clarifies the real meaning of the terms Father, Son and Holy Spirit that are used throughout the New Testament:

Father >> Divine Love

Son (or the Word) >> Divine Wisdom (or Order)

Holy Spirit >> Divine Power (or Activity)

Thus, Jesus is the God  [YHVH] of the Old Testament because in Hebrew “Jesus” is “Yehoshua” or “YHVH saves.”

So, what was the difference between Jesus and other human beings? Jesus’ being was Life itself but our own being is a finite receptacle that can receive Life. Jesus’ mind was Divine Truth itself but our own mind is a finite receptacle that can understand Truth. Our own will is finite but Jesus’ will was Infinite or Divine Love itself. Thus, we see that God put on human flesh, which contained the hereditary sins of humanity, in order to fight with the hells and  restore spiritual equilibrium. He accomplished this by undergoing human temptations.

Now, many people wonder why God would need to go through this arduous process if He is omnipotent. Why didn’t He just snap His fingers and restore equilibrium?

God is Divine Love and Divine Order. Therefore, God cannot do anything that is against Divine Order. And, since the universe was created or spawned from Divine Love (Freedom) and  Order (Law), God cannot prevent human beings from freely transgressing the Law.     At the time when Jesus was born in the world, the accumulation of hereditary evil had grown to such an extent that many people were possessed by evil spirits. Thus, this was the only way to restore the equilibrium between Heaven and hell in a LAWFUL manner.

By coming down in the flesh, the Lord also paved a spiritual WAY for us to return into the holy fields of Heaven. When we read Jesus’ words and model our behavior upon the way He lived His life, we are able to return into the Heavens of our heart and mind. We can reform our mind through repentance and regenerate our will through spiritual temptation.

Thus, Jesus (Yehoshua or YHVH saves) is called the SON because He is Divine Truth manifested and Divine Love is the FATHER. And the FATHER and SON are One like the spiritual heat and radiance of LIGHT.

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63

“Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” John 14:8-10

Divine Truth is also synonymous with the celestial sense of the WORD or Bible. In fact, the celestial sense describes the Lord’s temptations and combats with the hells. For example, the wars and battles which Joshua (Yehoshua) and David undertook for the children of Israel represent the Lord’s battles for our salvation. This is why Jesus said that the Bible is about Him.

When we understand who Jesus really is, we are no longer perplexed by what He said.

Jesus wants us to eat His flesh and drink His blood because He is the body of God (or Heaven); and His blood is Truth and His flesh is Love.  And He said that we can only come to the Father through Him because we can only realize Love by first understanding and loving Truth.

Through the passage of time, all religions on Earth eventually become corrupted, degraded and finally consummated. The Jewish religion was a true religion instituted by God through the Ten Commandments and many  rituals that corresponded to spiritual realities. But, since they did not have an understanding of the spiritual and celestial sense of the Bible, the Israelites eventually  clung to the letter of the Law and lost its spirit.

The Lord manifested as the Messiah on Earth to restore Love and Truth and raise a new dispensation. Like all religious rituals correspond to spiritual realities, the ritual of Baptism of the Christian or Messianic religion, on the spiritual level, represents spiritual washing or repentance and regeneration through the waters of Baptism (or spiritual temptations). And  the Holy Supper corresponds to conjunction with Heaven and God through the belief in Truth and the doing of Love.

After 2000 years, the Christian religion has also been degraded, corrupted and consummated through false doctrines such as the teaching of faith without charity, as well as the belief in God as three persons. But the Bible foretells that the Lord will raise a new dispensation called the “New Jerusalem.”  In the “New Jerusalem,”  human beings will be conjoined with the Lord by understanding the spiritual and celestial sense of the Word.

Spiritual doctrines may differ but all legitimate religions teach the same basic spiritual principles. The source of our being is Light, Truth and Love. In the end, if we desire to enter Heaven we must repent, resist the temptation to be selfish, and practice Love  by being useful to our neighbor and God. 

We are told that throughout the period of the ancient Jewish Church the Lord was present in the world through the correspondence of their worship, because the interior life of men was so perverted that He could no longer be conjoined to them in any interior way. But by His life on earth He put in order the spiritual forces which had been perverting man's internal life and so opened the way to genuine conjunction. From that time on, it was no longer necessary for men to observe the detailed rituals of that church, since they could live out the Lord's love and truth in their daily lives in affection, thought, and conduct. ANITA DOLE

Copyright © 2011-2014  A. J. Coriat All rights reserved.