282. PART FOUR
The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself and not from nothing. People throughout the world know, and every wise person from an interior perception acknowledges, that there is one God who is the Creator of the universe. People also know from the Word that God, the Creator of the universe, is called Jehovah, so named from the verb to be, because He alone just is.* That the Lord from eternity s that Jehovah-this we demonstrated in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord by citing many proofs from the Word. Jehovah is called the Lord from eternity because it was Jehovah who assumed a humanity in order to save people from hell. Moreover at that time He commanded His disciples to call Him Lord.** Consequently in the New Testament Jehovah is called the Lord, as can be seen from considering the following statement. [In the Old Testament:]
You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul... (Deuteronomy 6:5)
And in the New Testament:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul... (Matthew 22:37)
The same substitution is found in other passages taken from the Old Testament and quoted in the Gospels. * See Exodus 3:13-15. Cf. John 8:58. The name Jehovah in Hebrew (hwhy) is derived from the verb hwh (= hyh) meaning be, and it resembles the third person form hyhy meaning he is. The Hebrew verb form is imperfect in aspect, so that it encompasses also the meanings he will be and he has been. Cf. the phrase who is and who was and who is to come in Revelation 1:4, 8, 11:17. ** John 13:13.