“The Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages.” - True Christian Religion §791
Kempton New Church

December
1

Conviction, Trust, and Confidence

And he lifted up his enunciation, and said, Balaam the son of Beor has said, and the man whose eyes are open has said; he has said, who heard the sayings of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who beheld the vision of Shaddai, falling forward, but having his eyes uncovered: I shall see Him, but not now; I shall observe Him, but not near; there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel, and shall strike the quarters of Moab, and topple all the sons of Sheth. (Numbers 24:15,17)

"A star" signifies spiritual Divine truth (Apocalypse Revealed 420)

The power of Divine truth is directed especially against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. The fight against these must be waged by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. Moreover it is by means of the truths in a man that the Lord has the power to save him; for man is reformed and regenerated and is at the same time taken out of hell and introduced into heaven, by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. This power the Lord took upon Himself, even as to His Divine Human, after He had fulfilled all things of the Word down to its ultimates. (Sacred Scripture 49.1)

[Then an angel from heaven said], “Our faith is, was, and for ever will be, a faith in the Lord God the Savior, whose Human is Divine and whose Divine is Human; thus it is adapted to reception, and by it the Divine spiritual is united to the natural of man, and a spiritual faith is formed in the natural, and from the spiritual light in which our faith is the natural becomes as it were transparent. The truths of which our faith consists are as many as the verses in the sacred Volume; thee truths are all like stars, which by their light make the faith manifest and give it form. Man acquires this faith from the Word by means of his natural light, in which light it is knowledge, thought, and persuasion; but the Lord causes it, in those who believe in Him, to become conviction, trust, and confidence; thus faith becomes spiritual-natural, and by means of charity becomes living. (True Christian Religion 137.4)

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