98. The sole reason why the Christian world has fallen into a faith, which has put away from itself all the truths and goods of heaven and the church, even to the separation thereof, is because they have divided God into three, and have not believed the Lord God the Savior to be one with God the Father, and thus have not approached Him immediately; when nevertheless He alone as to His Human is the Divine truth itself:
Which is the Word, that was God with God, and is the true Light which enlighteneth every man; and became flesh (John 1:1, 2, 9, 14). That He is the truth itself, and thus the light itself, is also testified in other places; for He says:
I am the Light of the world (John 8:22; 9:5). And in another place:
While ye have the Light, believe in the Light, that ye may be sons of the Light. I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me, may not abide in darkness (John 12:36, 46). In Revelation:
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the bright and morning Star (Rev. 22:13, 16). And in Matthew:
When Jesus was transformed, His face shone as the sun and His raiment became as the light (Matt. 17:1, 2). Hence it appears why and whence this imaginary faith came into the world, namely, because they have not approached the Lord. And I can, from all experience, and thence testimony from heaven, declare with certainty, that it is impossible to derive a single genuine theological truth from any other source than from the Lord alone; nay, that to derive it from any other source is as impossible, as it is to sail from England or Holland to the Pleiades, or to ride on horseback from Germany to Orion in the sky.
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