10 Every multifaceted entity falls apart unless it depends on one thing, a
fact recognized by all sound reasoning whether religious or not. For
example, a human being, made up of many limbs, internal organs, sen-
sory organs, and motor organs all interconnected, would fall apart if it
did not depend on one soul; and the body itself would fall apart if it did
not depend on one heart. A country would fall apart but for its one
monarch; a household would fall apart but for its one head; every one of
the many workplaces in every country would fall apart but for its one
person in charge. What army would prevail against its enemies without a
leader who has supreme power, and officers with authority over their sol-
diers? Likewise a church would fall apart unless it acknowledged one
God; and even the angelic heaven would fall apart. Heaven acts as the
head of the church on earth; the soul of both is the Lord; this is why
heaven and the church are called his body. So if heaven and the church
did not acknowledge one God, each would be like a lifeless corpse that
would be thrown away and buried because it was good for nothing.
11 4. For various reasons, different nations and peoples have had and still
have a diversity of opinions on the nature of that one God.The first reason
for this is that knowledge about God and therefore acknowledgment of
God is not possible without revelation;and knowledge of the Lord and
therefore acknowledgment that all the fullness of divinity dwells physi-
cally in him is not possible without the Word,which is a garland of revela-
tions. From the revelation they have been given, people are able to meet
God, receive an inflow, and thus be made spiritual instead of earthly.
Early revelation spread throughout the whole world, and the earthly
self distorted it in many different ways, giving rise to divergences, dis-
agreements, heresies, and schisms among religions.
The second reason [for the diversity of opinions on God] is that the
earthly self cannot comprehend anything about God; it can comprehend
only the world, and conform it to itself. This is why it is among the
axioms of the Christian church that the earthly self is against the spiritual
self, and that they battle each other. People then have come to acknowl-
edge from the Word [or] from some other revelation that there is a God,
and yet in both the past and the present they have had a diversity of
opinions on the nature and the oneness of God.
[ 2 ] Therefore people whose mental sight was dependent on their
physical senses and who nevertheless wished to see God made idols for
themselves out of gold, silver, stone, and wood. They intended to adore
God in those forms as objects of sight. Others with the same desires but
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