THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, WHO IS JEHOVAH, CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ALL
THINGS THEREOF FROM HIMSELF, AND NOT FROM NOTHING.

It is known throughout the world, and acknowledged by every wise man from
interior perception, that God, who is the Creator of the universe, is One;
and it is known from the Word that God the Creator of the universe is
called "Jehovah," which is from the verb to be, because He alone is. That
the Lord from eternity is that Jehovah is shown by many statements from
the Word in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord. Jehovah
is called the Lord from eternity, since Jehovah assumed a Human that He
might save men from hell; He then commanded His disciples to call Him
Lord. Therefore in the New Testament Jehovah is called "the Lord;" as can
be seen from this:

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul (Deut. 5:5);

but in the New Testament:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all
thy soul (Matt. 22:35).

It is the same in other passages in the Gospels, taken from the Old
Testament.

283. Every one who thinks from clear reason sees that the universe was
not created out of nothing, for he sees that not anything can be made out
of nothing; since nothing is nothing, and to make anything out of nothing
is a contradiction, and a contradiction is contrary to the light of truth,
which is from Divine Wisdom; and whatever is not from Divine Wisdom is not