Doctrine of the Lord, by Emanuel Swedenborg: 51-100

This is a theological treatise — specifically a numbered section from Emanuel Swedenborg's *Doctrine of the Lord* (1763), a work of Christian theological exposition within Swedenborg's distinctive mystical-rationalist tradition. Its central argument is that the Holy Spirit, the "Comforter," and the "Spirit of Truth" referenced in John's Gospel are not a separate divine person but are identical with the Lord (Jesus Christ) himself — specifically, they designate the life of Christ's divine wisdom or "Divine Truth" as it proceeds from him. Swedenborg builds this case through dense scriptural citation, arguing that the prophets consistently attributed their words to "Jehovah" directly, never to the Holy Spirit as an intermediary, and that this pattern — exhaustively documented across the entire book of Jeremiah — proves God communicates as one unified person. The work's most distinctive and heterodox claim is its rejection of the traditional Trinitarian doctrine of three co-equal persons: Swedenborg argues that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three persons but three aspects of a single divine person, analogous to soul, body, and the life proceeding from them. He also makes an unusual cosmological claim that angelic breathing and heartbeat correspond respectively to the reception of divine wisdom and divine love from the Lord. The text will appeal most to readers interested in Swedenborg's Christocentric theology, the New Church tradition he founded, or historical debates about Trinitarian doctrine.

Doctrine of the Lord, by Emanuel Swedenborg: 51-100

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