618. And no one was able to learn the song but the hundred forty-four thousand, signifies that no others from Christians could understand, and thus from love and faith acknowledge, that the Lord alone is the God of heaven and earth, but those who were received by the Lord into this New Heaven. By this "song" is signified the acknowledgment and glorification of the Lord, that He is the God of heaven and earth (n. 279, 617); by "learning" is signified to perceive interiorly in oneself that it is so, which is to understand, and so to receive and acknowledge; he who learns otherwise, learns and does not learn, because he does not retain. By the hundred forty-four thousand are meant they who acknowledge the Lord alone as the God of heaven and earth (n. 612). The reason why no others from Christians could learn this song, that is, acknowledge that the Lord alone is the God of heaven and earth is because they have imbibed from infancy the idea that there are three Persons of the Divinity distinct from each other; for it is said in the doctrine of the Trinity, "There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit"; likewise, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God"; and although it is there added, that these three are one, yet in their thought they have divided the Divine essence into three, which nevertheless cannot be divided; and for that reason they approach the Father, because He is first in order. And besides, the leaders in the church have taught, that they should pray to the Father to send the Holy Spirit for the sake of the Son; by this their idea of three has been confirmed, so that they cannot think of the Son as God, equal with the Father, and one with the Father, but of the Son as equal with any other man, although He alone as to His Human is justice, and is called "Jehovah our justice" (Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16). [2] From this idea of their thought it has come to pass, that they are not able to comprehend how the Lord, as born in the world, can be the God of heaven and earth, and still less, that He is God alone notwithstanding they have heard and read all the passages cited above (n. 613), and also these:
All things that the Father hath are Mine (John 16:15; see also 12:45). The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son (John 13:3). Father, thou hast given Me power over all flesh; all Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine (John 17:2-3, 10). All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). Also that He was conceived of Jehovah the Father, and hence that His soul was from Him (Luke 1:34, 38); and consequently, the Divine essence itself was His; besides many other like things in other places. That they were said of the Lord who was born in the world, anyone may see; as also that:
He and the Father are one; and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him; and that he who seeth Him seeth the Father (John 10:28, 38; 14:6-11). Although they may have heard and read these things, yet they cannot give up the idea which was conceived in boyhood and confirmed in them afterwards by their teachers, and which has so closed up their rational faculty that they are incapable of seeing, that is, of understanding these words of the Lord:
I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one cometh unto the Father but by Me (John 14:6). He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber; I am the door, by Me if anyone enter in, he shall be saved (John 10:1, 9). [3] Also that the Lord glorified His Human, that is, united it to the Divine of the Father, that is, to the Divine which was in Him from conception, for the sake of rendering it possible for the human race to be united to God the Father in Him and through Him. That this was the reason of the Lord's coming into the world, and of the glorification of His Human, He fully teaches in John; for He says:
In that day ye shall know, that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20). He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing; if anyone abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is dried up in the fire (John 15:5-6). And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified in the truth, that all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, I in them and Thou in Me (John 17:19, 21, 23, 26; also, 6:56; and in other places). From which it clearly appears, that the Lord's coming into the world, and the glorification of His Human, had for its end the conjunction of men with God the Father in Him and through Him, thus that He is to be approached. This is also confirmed by the Lord's so often saying, that they must believe in Him, that they might have eternal life (see above, n. 553). [4] Who cannot see that all this is said by the Lord concerning Himself in His Human and that He never would have said, nor could say, that He was in men and men in Him, and that it was necessary to believe in Him, that they might have eternal life, if His Human was not Divine? "To ask the Father in His name," does not mean to approach God the Father immediately, nor to ask for His sake, but to approach the Lord, and the Father through Him, because the Father is in the Son, and they are one, as He Himself teaches. This is what is signified by asking "in His name"; as may appear also from these passages:
He that believeth not in the Son is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God (John 3:18). These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in His name (John 20:31). Jesus said, Whosoever receiveth this Boy in My name receiveth Me, and whosoever receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me (Luke 9:48). Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do (John 14:13-14). Besides other places, in which the expression "in the name of the Lord" occurs (Matt. 7:22; 18:5, 20; 19:29; 23:39; Mark 9:37; 16:17; Luke 13:35; 19:38; 24:47; John 1:12; 2:23; 5:43; 12:13; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26-27; 17:6). What is meant by "the name of God," and that "the name of the Father" is the Lord as to the Divine Human, may be seen above (n. 81, 165, 584).
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