"I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord"
About this Quote
The subtext is a critique of Christian intellectual compartmentalization. “Unable to divide” suggests that trinitarian language isn’t merely wrong; it’s a category error that survives only under the fog of earthly abstraction. Heaven, in Swedenborg’s imagination, is clarity. If the blessed can’t make the split, then the split must be an artifact of human politics, linguistic habit, or the mind’s appetite for manageable parts.
Then comes the pressure point: “this One is in the Lord.” Swedenborg isn’t preaching generic monotheism; he’s collapsing divine unity into a Christ-centered monism that competes with orthodox formulations while sounding devout. It’s doctrinal insurgency dressed as spiritual reportage. The line turns Jesus from one “person” among three into the locus where the whole Divine is encountered.
Context matters: Swedenborg was a respected scientist turned visionary, writing in an Enlightenment era that prized coherence and distrusted scholastic hair-splitting. He offers readers a modern bargain: keep Christianity, lose the metaphysical bureaucracy. Heaven, he implies, runs on simpler math.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Swedenborg, Emanuel. (2026, January 17). I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-often-talked-with-angels-on-this-subject-73063/
Chicago Style
Swedenborg, Emanuel. "I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-often-talked-with-angels-on-this-subject-73063/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-often-talked-with-angels-on-this-subject-73063/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.

