“Let me, therefore, give the meaning of these four activities carried
out by God the Father’s human manifestation:
[ 5 ] “Mediationrefers to his human manifestation as the medium
through which we can get closer to God the Father, and God the
Father can get closer to us and teach and lead us so as to save us. This is
why the Son of God, meaning the human manifestation of God the
Father, is called the Savior, and in the world was called Jesus, which
means salvation.
“Intercession refers to ongoing mediation. Absolute love, with its
mercy, forgiveness, and grace, constantly intercedes; that is, it mediates
for the people who do its commandments, the people it loves.
“Ritual purgingrefers to the removal of the sins that we would
quickly fall into if we turned to Jehovah without mediation.
“Appeasementrefers to the actions of mercy and grace that prevent us
from causing our own damnation through sin and also protect us from
desecrating what is holy. This has the same meaning as the mercy seat
over the ark in the tabernacle.
[ 6 ] “It is known that God uses appearances when he speaks in the
Word: for example, the appearance that he is angry, takes revenge, tests
people, punishes them, throws them into hell, and damns them. Indeed,
the appearance is that he does evil. Nevertheless, he is angry at no one,
does not take revenge on, test, or punish anyone, throw anyone into hell,
or damn anyone. To do this would be as far from God as hell is from
heaven—in fact, infinitely farther. Therefore these are expressions of an
appearance. In a sense, ritual purging, appeasement, interceding, and
mediatingare also expressions of an appearance. They mean activities
through God’s human manifestation that provide us access to God, and
to grace from God.
“Because people have not understood these qualities they have
divided God into three and have founded every teaching in the church
on these three. By doing so they have falsified the Word. The result is the
abomination of desolationforetold by the Lord in Daniel [ 11 : 31 ; 12 : 11 ], and
later on in Matthew chapter 24 [: 15 ].”
After I had spoken, the group of spirits withdrew from around me. I
noticed that the spirits who were still thinking three gods were looking
down toward hell. The spirits who were thinking that there is one God
within whom there is a divine Trinity and that the Trinity is in the Lord
God the Savior were looking toward heaven. To the latter group the sun
in heaven appeared, where Jehovah exists in his human manifestation.
§135 the lord the redeemer & redemption 191