Part of the Christian message is the concept of redemption. What does it mean, to say that the Lord redeemed people?

Here are the key concepts about redemption in New Christian thought, as excerpted from Swedenborg's works (written in the 1700s):

"Jehovah God came down and took upon Himself a human form, in order to redeem and save mankind.

Christian churches today believe that God the Creator of the universe fathered a Son from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself human form to redeem and save mankind. But this is an error and collapses of its own accord, so long as the mind concentrates on the oneness of God, and the reason looks upon as fiction or worse the idea that the one God fathered a Son from eternity, and also that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is severally God, is one God. This fiction is utterly exploded, like a meteorite in the atmosphere, when it is shown from the Word that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man and also was the Redeemer." (True Christian Religion 82)

"In the process of taking on a human manifestation, God followed his own divine design.... Now, because God came down, and because he is the design..., there was no other way for him to become an actual human being than to be conceived, to be carried in the womb, to be born, to be brought up, and to acquire more and more knowledge so as to become intelligent and wise. Therefore in his human manifestation he was an infant like any infant, a child like any child, and so on with just one difference: he completed the process more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than the rest of us do." (True Christian Religion 89)

"There is a belief that the Lord in his human manifestation not only was but still is the Son of Mary. This is a blunder, though, on the part of the Christian world. It is true that he was the Son of Mary; it is not true that he still is. As the Lord carried out the acts of redemption, he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a human nature from his Father. This is how it came about that the Lord's human nature is divine and that in him God is human and a human is God.' (True Christian Religion 102)

"Suffering on the cross was the final trial the Lord underwent as the greatest prophet. It was a means of glorifying his human nature, that is, of uniting that nature to his Father's divine nature. It was not redemption. There are two things for which the Lord came into the world and through which he saved people and angels: redemption, and the glorification of his human aspect. These two things are distinct from each other, but they become one in contributing to salvation.

In the preceding points we have shown what redemption was: battling the hells, gaining control over them, and then restructuring the heavens. Glorification, however, was the uniting of the Lord's human nature with the divine nature of his Father. This process occurred in successive stages and was completed by the suffering on the cross." (True Christian Religion 126)

"Redemption consisted in the conquest of the hells, the ordering of the heavens and the establishment of a new church, because without them no one could have been saved. This is their proper order: the hells had first to be conquered, before a new heaven of angels could be formed, and this had to be formed before a new church could be established on earth. For people in the world are so linked with the angels in heaven and the spirits in hell, that in the interiors of their minds they are identified with one party or the other." (True Christian Religion 115)

"Without that redemption no man could have been saved, nor could the angels have continued in a state of integrity. It shall be told first what redemption is. To redeem means to liberate from damnation, to deliver from eternal death, to rescue from hell, and to release from the hand of the devil the captive and the bound. This the Lord did by subjugating the hells and establishing a new heaven." (True Christian Religion 118)

82. (i) JEHOVAH GOD CAME DOWN AND TOOK UPON HIMSELF HUMAN FORM, IN ORDER TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND.

Christian churches today believe that God the Creator of the universe fathered a Son from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself human form to redeem and save mankind. But this is an error and collapses of its own accord, so long as the mind concentrates on the oneness of God, and the reason looks upon as fiction or worse the idea that the one God fathered a Son from eternity, and also that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is severally God, is one God. This fiction is utterly exploded, like a meteorite in the atmosphere, when it is shown from the Word that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man and also was the Redeemer.

[2] The first point, that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man, is established by these passages:

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, who shall be called God with us, Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23.

A boy is born for us, a son is given to us, on whose shoulder the dominion shall be; and his name shall be called Wonderful, God, Hero, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6-7.

On that day it will be said, Behold, He is our God, whom we have awaited to free us. He is Jehovah, whom we have awaited. Let us exult and rejoice in His salvation, Isaiah 25:9.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a path for our God; and all flesh shall see it together, Isaiah 40:3, 5.

Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength, and His arm shall bear dominion for Him. Behold, His recompense comes with Him; He will tend His flock like a shepherd, Isaiah 40:10-11.

Jehovah said, Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion; behold, I come to dwell in your midst; then shall many nations cleave to Jehovah on that day, Zechariah 2:10-11.

I Jehovah have called you in righteousness, and I will give you to be a covenant with the people. I am Jehovah, this is my name; my glory I shall not give to another, Isaiah 42:1, 6-8.

Behold, the days will come when I will raise up for David a righteous shoot, who will reign as king and do judgment and righteousness upon earth; and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

There are also the passages where the Lord's coming is called 'the day of Jehovah', as Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22; Ezekiel 31:15; Joel 1:15; 2:1-2, 11, 29, 31; 3:1, 14, 18; Amos 5:13, 18, 20; Zephaniah 1:7-18; Zechariah 14:1, 4-21; and elsewhere.

[3] It is openly stated in Luke that Jehovah Himself came down and took upon Himself human form.

Mary said to the angel, How shall this happen, since I have no knowledge of a man? The angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so that the holy thing that is born of you will be called the Son of God, Luke 1:34-35.

And in Matthew the angel said in a dream to Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, that that which was born of her was of the Holy Spirit; and Joseph did not know her until she had borne a son, and he called His name Jesus, Matthew 1:20, 25. The Holy Spirit means the Divine which proceeds from Jehovah God, as will be seen in Chapter 3 of this book. Everyone knows that a child gets its soul and life from the father, its body from the mother. ¹ So how could it be more openly stated that the Lord's soul and life were from Jehovah God, and because the Divine cannot be divided, that the Father's Divine itself was His soul and life? That is why the Lord so many times called Jehovah God His Father, and Jehovah God called Him His Son. Can anything more ridiculous be said than the idea that our Lord's soul was from His mother Mary? Yet such is the dream of both Roman Catholics and Protestants today, and they have not woken up to what is said in the Word.

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