lips but three with their hearts. To such people God is no more than a
verbal expression. To them theology as a whole is a kind of golden idol
locked up in a case, and the key to unlock it is held by church leaders
alone. When such people read the Word they do not detect any light in
it or from it—not even the impression that there is one God. To them
the Word is marred with blotches, and the oneness of God in it is
obscured. The Lord described people like this in Matthew: “You will
hear with your hearing but you will not understand; and you will see by
seeing, but you will not perceive. They have closed their eyes to avoid
ever seeing with their eyes, hearing with their ears, understanding with
their hearts, turning themselves around, and being healed by me”
(Matthew 13 : 14 – 15 ). All such Christians are like people who go into win-
dowless rooms to avoid the light and who grope for food and coins by
feeling their way along the walls. Eventually they develop eyesight like
that of owls and see in the dark. They are like a woman who has many
husbands—she is a promiscuous woman rather than a wife. They are
like a young woman who accepts rings from multiple suitors, and after
the wedding, rents out her nights not only to one of them but also to
the rest.
2. The recognition that God exists and that there is one God flows univer- 8
sally from God into human souls.There is an inflow from God into us.
This is obvious from everyone’s ready admission that everything good
that is truly good and that exists in us and is done by us is from God. The
same admission applies to everything related to goodwill and faith. For
we read, “We cannot receive anything unless it is given to us from heaven”
(John 3 : 27 ). And Jesus said, “Without me you cannot do anything” (John
15 : 5 ), meaning anything having to do with goodwill and faith.
This inflow comes into our souls because the soul is the inmost and
highest part of us. The inflow from God reaches that part first and then
comes down into the things below and enlivens them, depending on our
openness to what flows in. Of course, truths that will become part of
our faith do indeed flow in through our hearing and are implanted in
our mind, which is below the soul; but all these truths do is prepare us
to accept what flows in from God through our soul. The quality of that
preparation determines the quality of our acceptance and of the trans-
formation of our earthly faith into spiritual faith.
[ 2 ] The notion that there is one God flows into our souls from God
because everything that is divine, as a whole and in every detail, is
§8 god the creator & creation 9