341. VIII. THAT IT IS PERMITTED MOHAMMEDANS AT THIS DAY TO MARRY MANY WIVES BECAUSE THEY DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO BE ONE WITH JEHOVAH THE FATHER,AND THUS AS THE GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND HENCE CANNOT RECEIVE LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL. Mohammedans, from the religion handed down by Mohammed, acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the great Prophet; also that He was sent into the world by God the Father to teach men.* But they do not acknowledge that God the Father and He are one, or that His Divine and Human are one Person united as soul and body, according to the faith which all Christians receive from the Athanasian confession. Therefore, the followers of Mohammed could not acknowledge our Lord as any God from eternity, but only as a perfect natural man. And since Mohammed was of this opinion, therefore the disciples who followed him were of the same opinion. And because they knew that God is one and that this God is He who created the universe; therefore, in their worship, they could not but pass our Lord by, and this the more because they declare Mohammed also to be the great Prophet. Moreover, they do not know what the Lord taught. It is from this cause that the interiors of their mind, which in themselves are spiritual, could not be opened; that they can be opened only by the Lord, see no. 340 just above. [2] The genuine reason why they are opened by the Lord when He is acknowledged and is approached as the God of heaven and earth, being opened with those who live according to His precepts, is because otherwise there is no conjunction, and without conjunction there is no reception. With respect to man, there is the presence of the Lord and there is conjunction with Him. Presence is effected by approaching Him, and conjunction by living according to His precepts. If there is merely presence, there is no reception, but if there is presence and at the same time conjunction, there is reception. [3] Concerning this, I will relate something new from the spiritual world. There a person becomes present by reason of thought concerning him; but no one is conjoined to another save by reason of an affection of love--an affection which is insinuated by compliance with his words and his pleasure. In the spiritual world, this is a familiar occurrence, and it takes its origin from the Lord, it being in this way that He is present and in this way that He is conjoined with man. The above has been said to the end that it may be known why it is permitted Mohammedans to take several wives, namely, because with them, love truly conjugial, which is only between one man and one wife, is not possible, and this because they have not from religion acknowledged the Lord as equal to God the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth. That conjugial love is with every individual according to the state of the Church [with him] may be seen in no. 130 above and in many places in the preceding pages.
* See A Philosopher's Note Book, p. 488.