DLIFE 53, 56 , 57 - The Ten Commandments Teaches What Evils Are Sins

DLIFE 53

What nation, in the whole world,
does not know that it is evil to steal,
to commit adultery, to kill and to bear false witness?
If they did not know this,
and if they did not pass laws
to guard against anyone’s doing these things,
it would be the end of them,
for any society, republic or kingdom
would collapse without these laws.

Who can suppose that the Israelite nation was,
more than any other nation,
so stupid as not to know that these acts are evil?
One may wonder, therefore,
why these laws, universally known the world over,
were promulgated
from Mount Sinai by Jehovah Himself,
accompanied by so great a miracle.

But listen, they were promulgated
with so great a miracle
in order for people to know
that these laws were not only civil and moral laws,
but also spiritual laws,
and that to disobey them
was not only to do evil
to one’s fellow citizen and community,
but was also to sin against God.
By being promulgated
by Jehovah from Mount Sinai, therefore,
these laws became laws of religion.
For it is plain that whatever Jehovah God commands,
He intends to be a commandment of religion,
and that it must be obeyed for His sake,
and for the sake of people’s salvation.

DLIFE 56

Such great power and such great holiness
resided in that law for the further reason
that it embraced everything having to do with religion.
For it consisted of two tablets,
one of which contained everything on the part of God,
and the other everything on the part of humankind.
The precepts of that law were therefore
called the Ten Commandments,
called so because
the number ten symbolizes everything.

DLIFE 57

Since that law is the means
of the Lord’s conjunction with a person,
and of a person with the Lord,
it is called a covenant and a testimony —
a covenant because it conjoins,
and a testimony because it testifies.
For a covenant symbolizes a conjunction,
and a testimony symbolizes a testification
of that conjunction.

For that reason there were two tablets,
one for the Lord, the other for people.
Conjunction is brought about by the Lord,
but only when someone keeps the commandments
written on the tablet for people.
For the Lord is continually present and acting,
and wishes to enter in,
but a person must open the way,
using the freedom to do so
that he has from the Lord.
For the Lord says:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and dine with him,
and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:20)

 

DLIFE 52 - Faith and Life: Thinking and Doing

DLIFE 52

. . . no one has in him a grain of truth
more than the goodness in him,
thus not a grain of faith more than the life he lives.
Thought
that something is so
may exist in the intellect,
but it is without the acknowledgment
that constitutes faith
unless it is consented to in the will.
Thus faith and life go together at every step.

It is now apparent from this
that insofar as someone refrains
from evils as being sins,
so far he has faith and is spiritual.

 

DLIFE 32, 33, 39, 31 - Loving Truths and Goods Requires Shunning Evils As Sins

DLIFE 32

There are two universals that proceed from the Lord:
Divine good, and Divine truth.
Divine good is of His Divine love,
and Divine truth is of His Divine wisdom.
In the Lord these two are a one,
and therefore they proceed from Him as a one,
but they are not received as a one
by angels in the heavens, or by people on earth.

DLIFE 33

As good and truth are a one in the Lord,
and proceed as a one from Him,
it follows that good loves truth and truth loves good,
and they will to be a one.
It is the same with their opposites:
evil loves falsity, and falsity loves evil,
and these will to be a one.

DLIFE 39

. . .  truths are the means by which
the goodness of love finds expression
and becomes real;
consequently, that good loves truths
in order to exist.
In the Word, therefore,
to do truth means to give goodness expression.

DLIFE 41

From all that has been said
it is now evident that he who shuns evils as sins,
loves truths and longs for them;
and that the more he shuns them,
so much the more love and longing does he feel,
because so much the more he is in good.
The result is
that he comes into the heavenly marriage,
which is the marriage of good and truth,
in which is heaven,
and in which must be the church.

DLIFE 18, 19-20, 21, 27, 31 - Shunning Evils

DLIFE18

In proportion as a person shuns evils as sins,
in the same proportion he does goods,
not from himself but from the Lord.

Who does not or may not know
that evils stand in the way
of the Lord's entrance to a person?
For evil is hell, and the Lord is heaven,
and hell and heaven are opposites.
In proportion therefore as a person is in the one,
in the same proportion he cannot be in the other.
For the one acts against the other and destroys it.

DLIFE 19-20

. . . so long as a person is in this world
he is midway between evil and good,
and is kept in freedom
to turn himself to either the one or the other;
if he turns to evil he turns away from good;
if he turns to good he turns away from evil.

We have said that a person is kept in freedom
to turn himself one way or the other.
It is not from himself
that every man has this freedom,
but he has it from the Lord,
and this is why he is said to be kept in it.

DLIFE 21

It is plainly evident from all this
that in proportion as a person shuns evils,
in the same proportion
is he with the Lord and in the Lord;
and that in proportion as he is in the Lord,
in the same proportion he does goods,
not from self but from Him.
From this results the general law:
In proportion as any one shuns evils,
in the same proportion he does goods.

DLIFE 27

. . . knowledges are in the highest degree necessary,
because they teach how a person is to act;
and when he acts them,
then they are alive in him,
and not till then.

DLIFE 31

That no person can from himself
do what is really good, is the truth.
But so to use this truth
as to do away with all the good of charity
that is done by a person who shuns evils as sins
is a great wickedness,
for it is diametrically contrary to the Word,
which commands that a person shall do.
It is contrary to the commandments
of love to God and love toward the neighbor
on which the Law and the Prophets hang,
and it is to flout and undermine everything of religion.
For everyone knows
that religion is to do what is good,
and that everyone will be judged
according to his deeds.
Every person is so constituted as to be able
(by the Lord's power, if he begs for it)
to shun evils as of himself;
and that which he afterwards does
is good from the Lord.

 

DLIFE 9, 12, 13 - No One Can - of Himself - Do Good That Is Good

DLIFE 9

No one has previously known
whether the good he does
originates from himself or from God,
because the church has separated faith from charity,
and goodness is an expression of charity.
A person gives to the poor, donates to the needy,
contributes to churches and shelters,
looks out for the welfare
of his church, country, and fellow citizens,
regularly goes to church,
devoutly listens then and prays,
reads the Word and books of piety,
and thinks about salvation;
and this without knowing
whether he does these things of himself or from God.
He can do these very things from God,
or he can do them of himself.
If he does them from God, they are good.
If he does them of himself, they are not good.
In fact, we encounter goods of this kind,
done by people of themselves,
which are clearly evil,
such as hypocritical goods,
which are deceptive and fraudulent.

DLIFE 12

Good may be
civic good, moral good, or spiritual good.
Civic good is the good that a person does
in conformity with civil law.
It is by means of this good
and in the measure of it
that a person is a citizen in the natural world.

Moral good is the good that a person does
in conformity with rational law.
It is by means of this good
and in the measure of it
that a person is human.

Spiritual good is the good that a person does
in conformity with spiritual law.
It is by means of this good
and in the measure of it
that a person is a citizen in the spiritual world.

These goods form a series in the following sequence:
spiritual good is the highest good;
moral good is an intermediate good;
and civic good is the lowest good.

A person possessing spiritual goodness
is a moral person and also a civic one.
On the other hand,
a person without any spiritual goodness
may appear to be a moral and civic person,
but in fact he is not.

DLIFE 13

The essence of goodness
can only originate from Him
who is goodness itself.
Cast your thought in every direction, think hard,
and ask yourself what makes goodness good,
and you will see that it is what it has at its core,
that something is good
which has in it the essence of goodness,
consequently that that goodness is good
which originates from goodness itself,
thus from God.
And therefore that any goodness
not originating from God,
but from man, is not good.

 

DLIFE 1, 8 - All Religion Is of the Life, and the Life of Religion Is To Is To Do That Which Is Good

DLIFE 1

Every person who has religion
knows and acknowledges
that he who leads a good life is saved,
and that he who leads an evil life is damned;
for he knows and acknowledges
that the person who lives right thinks right,
not only about God but also about his neighbor;
but not so the person whose life is evil.
The life of a person is his love,
and that which he loves
he not only likes to be doing,
but also likes to be thinking.
The reason therefore why we say
that the life is to do that which is good
is that doing what is good acts as a one
with thinking what is good,
for if in a person
these two things do not act as a one,
they are not of his life.

DLIFE 8

The reason why all religion is of the life,
is that after death everyone is his own life,
for the life stays the same
as it had been in this world,
and undergoes no change.
For an evil life cannot be converted into a good one,
nor a good life into an evil one,
because they are opposites,
and conversion into what is opposite is extinction.
And, being opposites,
a good life is called Life,
and an evil one Death.
This is why religion is of life,
and why its life is to do what is good.
__________

DLIFE = The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem

 

SS 115 - Without His Word

SS 115

. . . without the Word
no one would possess spiritual intelligence,
which consists in having knowledge of a God,
of heaven and hell,
and of a life after death;
nor would know anything whatever about the Lord,
about faith in Him and love to him,
nor anything about redemption,
by means of which nevertheless comes salvation.
As the Lord also says to His disciples:

Without Me you can do nothing.
(John 15:5)

A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven.
(John 3:27)

 

SS 104, 105 - Why It Only Takes a Few

SS 104

There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth
there is a church where the Word is,
and where by it the Lord is known;
for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and apart from Him there is no salvation.
It is sufficient
that there be a church where the Word is,
even if it consists of comparatively few,
for even in that case
the Lord is present by its means in the whole world,
for by its means heaven
is conjoined with the human race.

SS 105 [1-2]

But in what way the presence and conjunction
of the Lord and heaven
exist in all lands by means of the Word
shall now be told.
Before the Lord
the universal heaven is like one person,
and so is the church.
. . . In this person,
the church where the Word is read
and the Lord thereby known,
is as the heart and lungs;
the celestial kingdom as the heart,
and the spiritual kingdom as the lungs.

As the heart and lungs
are the two founts of life in the human body,
and all the rest of the organs and viscera subsist
and have life from them,
so also do all people in the world
subsist and have life
from the conjunction of the Lord and heaven
with the church through the Word —
all those who have any religion,
who worship one God and live rightly,
who are therefore included in that grand humanity,
and who relate to its organs and viscera
surrounding the thoracic cavity
which contains the heart and lungs.
For the Word in the church,
even if possessed by relatively few,
is life to all the rest
from the Lord through heaven,
as the organs and viscera of the entire body
have life from the heart and lungs.
They also have a similar communication.

 

SS 102 - The Words Used Before the Current One

SS 102

I have been told by angels of heaven
that there was among the ancients
a Word written entirely by correspondences,
but that it had been lost,
and they said that it is still preserved,
and is in use in that heaven
where those ancient people dwell
who had possessed it in this world.
The ancients who still use that Word in heaven
came partly from the land of Canaan
and the neighboring countries,
such as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia,
Chaldea, Assyria, and Egypt,
and also from Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh.
The inhabitants of all these kingdoms
were in representative worship,
and consequently
in the knowledge of correspondences.
The wisdom of that time
was derived from this knowledge,
and by its means they had an interior perception,
and a communication with the heavens.
Those who had an interior acquaintance
with the correspondences of that Word
were called wise and intelligent,
and later, diviners and magi.
But as that Word was full of correspondences
which only in a remote way
signified celestial and spiritual things,
and consequently began to be falsified by many,
of the Lord's Divine Providence
it disappeared in course of time,
and at length was utterly lost,
and another Word, written by correspondences
less remote than the other,
was given by means of prophets
among the sons of Israel.
Yet many names of places in the land of Canaan
and in the surrounding countries
were retained in this Word
with significations like those they had
in the Ancient Word.
It was for this reason
that Abram was commanded to go into that land,
and that his descendants, from Jacob,
were brought into it.

-- Swedenborg's Opinion --

While Swedenborg was working on
True Christian Religion,
he wrote Beyer on April 12, 1770
in reference to the Minutes of the Goteborg Consistory:

"There they call this Swedenborgianism,
but for my part, true Christianity."

 

SS 99 - After the Lord Was Born, the Church Changed

SS 99

The state of the church was completely changed
by the Lord's becoming the Word in ultimates.
All the churches that had existed before His advent
were representative churches
and could see Divine truth in the shade only;
but after the Lord's coming into the world
a church was instituted by Him
that saw Divine truth in the light.
The difference is like that
between evening and morning,
and the state of the church before His advent
is also called "the evening,"
and that of the church after it "the morning."
Before His coming into the world
the Lord was indeed present
with the people of the church,
but mediately through heaven,
whereas since His coming into the world
He is present with them immediately,
for in the world He put on the Divine Natural,
in which He is present with people.
The glorification of the Lord
is the glorification of His Human
that He assumed in the world,
and the Lord's glorified Human is the Divine Natural.

 

SS 914 , 93 - Heresies

SS 91

It has been shown above
that the Word cannot be understood apart from doctrine,
and that doctrine serves as a lamp
in whose light genuine truths may be seen.
And the reason is that the Word was written
solely in terms of correspondences.
As a result, the Word contains
many appearances of truth that are not naked truths,
and was much accommodated
to the comprehension of natural people,
even of sensual people,
yet at the same time it was written in such a way
that simple people can understand it in simplicity,
the intelligent in intelligence,
and wise in wisdom.

Now because that is the nature of the Word,
the appearances of truth,
which are truths clothed,
may be seized on as naked truths.
And when these are affirmed,
they become falsities.

People who do this, however,
are people who believe themselves wiser than others,
even though they are not wise.
For it is the part of wisdom to see
whether something is true before affirming it,
and not to affirm whatever one pleases.
People who do the latter
are people who possess a talent
for defending their affirmations
and are caught up in a conceit in their own intelligence.
But those who do the former
are people who love truths,
who are affected by them because they are true,
and who apply them to useful life endeavors.
For they are enlightened by the Lord
and see truths in the light of those truths,
in contrast to the first people
who create their own enlightenment
and see falsities also in the light of those falsities.

SS 93

Every person after death is instructed by angels,
and those who see truths,
and falsities in the light of those truths,
are accepted.
For everyone is given the ability after death
to see truths spiritually.
Those who have not
confirmed themselves in falsities see truths,
whereas those who have so confirmed themselves
are unwilling to see truths,
and if they do see them,
they turn their backs on them,
and then either deride them or falsify them.

 

SS 81-82, 85, 86, 87 - The Reason for Two Expressions & Three Examples

SS 81

As there is such a marriage
in each and every thing of the Word,
there frequently occur in it two expressions
that appear like repetitions of the same thing.
They however are not repetitions,
for one of them has reference to good
and the other to truth,
and both taken together
effect a conjunction of good and truth,
and consequently form one thing.
From this too comes
the Divinity of the Word and its holiness,
for in every Divine work good
is conjoined with truth and truth with good.

SS 82

It is said that in each and every thing of the Word
there is a marriage of the Lord and the church
and a derivative marriage of good and truth,
because wherever there is
a marriage of the Lord and the church
there is also a marriage of good and truth,
for the latter is from the former.
For when the church or person of the church
is in truths,
the Lord inflows into his truths with good,
and vivifies them.
Or what is the same,
when through truths the church
or person of the church
is in intelligence,
the Lord inflows into his intelligence
through the good of love and of charity,
and so pours life into it.

SS 85 

The reason "judgment" and "righteousness"
are mentioned so frequently
is that "judgment" is predicated of truths,
and "righteousness" of good,
and therefore to "do judgment and righteousness"
means to act from truth and from good.
The reason "judgment" is predicated of truth,
and "righteousness" of good
is that the Lord's government
in the spiritual kingdom is called "judgment,"
and in the celestial kingdom "righteousness".

SS 86 

The reason "nations" and "peoples"
are mentioned together
is that "nations" mean those in good,
and in the opposite sense in evil;
and "peoples" those in truths,
and in the opposite sense in falsities.
For this reason those of
the Lord's spiritual kingdom are called "peoples,"
and those of his celestial kingdom "nations";
for in the spiritual kingdom all are in truths
and consequently in wisdom,
and in the celestial kingdom all are in good
and consequently in love.

SS 87 

The reason "nations" and "peoples"
are mentioned together
is that "nations" mean those in good,
and in the opposite sense in evil;
and "peoples" those in truths,
and in the opposite sense in falsities.
For this reason those of the Lord's spiritual kingdom
are called "peoples,"
and those of his celestial kingdom "nations";
for in the spiritual kingdom all are in truths
and consequently in wisdom,
and in the celestial kingdom all are in good
and consequently in love.

 

SS 76, 77 - The Word and the Church

SS 76

. . . it is not the Word that makes the church,
but the understanding of it,
and that such as is the understanding of the Word
among those who are in the church,
such is the church itself.

SS 77

. . . a noble church if in genuine truths,
an ignoble church if not in genuine truths,
and a destroyed church if in falsified truths.

~ I Am the Lord Your God ~

And God spoke all these words, saying,
I am the Lord your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make unto yourself any graven image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
You shall not bow down yourself to them,
nor serve them:
For I the Lord your God am a jealous God . . ..
(Exodus 20:1-5)

And in all things that I have said unto you
be circumspect:
and make no mention of the name of other gods,
neither let it be heard out of your mouth.

Behold, I send an Angel before you,
to keep you in the way,
and to bring you into the place
which I have prepared.

(Exodus 23:13, 20-21)
 

SS 73-74 - The Word Exists in All of the Heavens, and Is the Source of the Angels’ Wisdom

SS 73

The angels acknowledge
that all their wisdom comes through the Word,
for they are in light in proportion
to their understanding of the Word.
The light of heaven is Divine wisdom,
which to their eyes is light.
In the sanctuary where the copy of the Word is kept,
there is a flaming and bright light that surpasses
every degree of light in heaven that is outside of it.
The cause is the same as above mentioned;
it is that the Lord is in the Word.

SS 74

The wisdom of the celestial angels
surpasses that of the spiritual angels
almost as much
as this surpasses the wisdom of people,
and the reason is that the celestial angels
are in the good of love from the Lord,
while the spiritual angels
are in truths of wisdom from Him,
and wherever there is the good of love
at the same time there resides wisdom;
but where there are truths
there resides no more of wisdom
than there is good of love together with it.
This is the reason why
the Word in the celestial kingdom is written differently
from that in the spiritual kingdom;
for goods of love are expressed in the Word
of the celestial kingdom,
and the marks denote affections,
whereas truths of wisdom are expressed in the Word
of the spiritual kingdom,
and the marks denote perceptions.

SS 62, 63, 64, 67 - The Lord, Angels and People When the Word Is Being Read

SS 62

The reason why there is conjunction with the Lord
by means of the Word
is that the Word treats solely of Him,
and the Lord is consequently its all in all
and is called the Word . . ..

SS 63

The reason why there is
association with the angels of heaven
by means of the sense of the letter
is that the spiritual sense and celestial sense are in it,
and the angels are in these senses,
the angels of the spiritual kingdom
being in the Word's spiritual sense,
and those of the celestial kingdom
in its celestial sense.
These senses are evolved
from the Word's natural sense
which is the sense of the letter
while a true person is in it.
The evolution is instantaneous;
consequently so is the association.

SS 64

While reading the Word in its sense of the letter
it has been given me to perceive
that communication was effected with the heavens,
now with this society of them, now with that,
and that what I understood
according to the natural sense,
the spiritual angels understood
according to the spiritual sense,
and the celestial angels
according to the celestial sense,
and this in an instant.

SS 67

We may now illustrate by an example
how from the natural sense
in which is the Word with people,
the spiritual angels draw forth their own sense,
and the celestial angels theirs.
Take as an example
five commandments of the Decalogue:

Honor thy father and thy mother.
By "father and mother" a person understands
his father and mother on earth,
and all who stand in their place,
and by to "honor" he understands
to hold in honor and obey them.
But a spiritual angel understands
the Lord by "father,"
and the church by "mother,"
and by to "honor" he understands to love.
And a celestial angel understands
the Lord's Divine love by "father,"
and His Divine wisdom by "mother,"
and by to "honor" to do what is good from Him.

Thou shalt not steal.
By to "steal" a person understands
to steal, defraud, or under any pretext take
from his neighbor his goods.
A spiritual angel understands to deprive others
of their truths of faith and goods of charity
by means of falsities and evils.
And a celestial angel understands
to attribute to himself what is the Lord's,
and to claim for himself His righteousness and merit.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.
By "committing adultery" a person understands
to commit adultery and fornication,
to do obscene things, speak lascivious words,
and harbor filthy thoughts.
A spiritual angel understands
to adulterate the goods of the Word,
and falsify its truths.
And a celestial angel understands
to deny the Lord's Divinity
and to profane the Word.

Thou shalt not kill.
By "killing," a person understands also
bearing hatred,
and desiring revenge even to the death.
A spiritual angel understands to act as a devil
and destroy people's souls.
And a celestial angel understands
to bear hatred against the Lord,
and against what is His.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.
By "bearing false witness"
a person understands also to lie and defame.
A spiritual angel understands to say and persuade
that what is false is true and what is evil good,
and the reverse.
And a celestial angel understands
to blaspheme the Lord and the Word.

From these examples it may be seen
how the spiritual and celestial of the Word
are evolved and drawn out
from the natural sense in which they are.
Wonderful to say,
the angels draw out their senses
without knowing what the person is thinking about,
and yet the thoughts of the angels and of the people
make a one by means of correspondences,
like end, cause, and effect.
Moreover ends actually are in the celestial kingdom,
causes in the spiritual kingdom,
and effects in the natural kingdom.
This conjunction by means of correspondences
is such from creation.
This then is the source of a person's association
with angels by means of the Word.

 

SS 57, 61 - Enlightenment and Reading the Word

SS 57

Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone,
and it is found in people who love truths
because they are true
and apply them to useful life endeavors.
Enlightenment in the Word is not found in others.

Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone
because the Lord is present everywhere in the Word.
The reason enlightenment is found
in people who love truths
because they are true
and apply them to useful life endeavors
is that they are in the Lord
and have the Lord in them.
For the Lord embodies His Divine truth.
When this truth is loved
because it is Divine truth —
and it is loved
when it is applied to useful endeavor —
then the Lord is present in the person in that truth.

SS 61 [2-3]

. . . when self and the world are the goals,
then when people read the Word,
their minds remain fixed on themselves and the world,
and as a consequence they think continually
in terms of their own self-interest,
which is in darkness
as regards anything having to do with heaven.
A person in this state
cannot be withdrawn by the Lord
from his self-interest
and so be raised into the light of heaven,
and so neither can he receive
any influx from the Lord through heaven.

I have also seen people like this
admitted into heaven;
but when they were found there
to be without truths,
they were cast down.
Yet even so the conceit remained in them
that they were deserving of heaven.

A different experience befell people
who had studied the Word out of an affection
to know the truth because it was true,
and because it fostered useful life endeavors,
not only their own,
but also the neighbor’s.
I have seen them raised into heaven
and so into the light
that surrounds Divine truth there,
and they were raised at the same time
into angelic wisdom,
and into its felicity,
which is eternal life.

 

SS 54-56 - Drawing & Verifying Doctrine

SS 54-56

Doctrine . . . must not only be drawn
from the Word’s literal sense,
but it must also be verified by it.
For if not verified by it,
doctrinal truth has the appearance
of having only a person’s intelligence in it,
and not the Lord’s Divine wisdom,
and in that case
doctrine would be like a house in the air
and not on the ground,
thus one without its foundation.

A doctrine of genuine truth
can also be fully drawn
from the Word’s literal sense.
For the Word in that sense is like a person clothed,
with his face exposed, and also his hands exposed.
Everything pertaining to a person’s life,
thus to his salvation,
are there exposed,
while everything else is clothed.
In many places, too, where they are clothed,
truths shine through, like a face through thin silk.

Moreover, as the Word’s truths
are multiplied out of a love for them,
and as they are set in order by that love,
they shine through their clothing
and are seen more and more clearly as a result.
But this, too, is owing to doctrine.

One may believe
that a doctrine of genuine truth can be acquired
by means of the Word’s spiritual sense,
which is obtained
through a knowledge of correspondences.
But doctrine is not acquired by means of that sense,
but is only illustrated and corroborated by it.
. . . no one arrives
at the spiritual sense through correspondences
unless he first possesses genuine truths from doctrine.
If he does not possess genuine truths first,
a person may falsify the Word
by applying some correspondences that he knows
and connecting them and interpreting them
to support something lodged in his mind
from a preconceived premise.

In addition,
the spiritual sense is granted to a person
only by the Lord,
and He protects it,
as He protects heaven,
inasmuch as heaven is present in it.

 

SS 51 - Understanding the Sense of the Letter of the Word

SS 51 [1, 3-4]

The Word is not understood apart from doctrine.
That is because the Word in its literal sense
consists of nothing but correspondent forms,
in order for spiritual and celestial concepts
to be present in it at the same time,
and for each word to be
a containing vessel and buttress of those concepts.
In some places in the literal sense, therefore,
we find not naked truths, but truths clothed,
which we call appearances of truth.
Many of these truths, too,
are accommodated to the comprehension of simple folk,
who do not elevate their thoughts above
the kinds of things they see before their eyes.
And some of them seem to involve contradictions,
even though there is no contradiction in the Word
when seen in its true light.

(Two of the several examples which follow:)

Jesus says,

Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
Everyone...who asks receives,
and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.
(Matthew 7:7-8, cf 21:21-22)

Without doctrine one might believe
that everyone receives what he asks for.
But doctrine teaches us to believe
that a person is given whatever he asks for,
not on his own,
but in response to the Lord.
For this, too, the Lord teaches:

If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you,
you will ask what you will,
and it shall be done for you.
(John 15:7)

The Lord says,

Blessed are the poor,
for (theirs) is the kingdom of God.
(Luke 6:20)

Without doctrine one could think
that heaven is for the poor and not for the rich.
But doctrine teaches us
that the poor in spirit are meant,
for the Lord says,

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:3)

 

SS 48, 49 - The Word In Its Holiness and Power

SS 48

The Word in its glory
was represented by the Lord
when He was transfigured.
Concerning the Lord as transfigured
before Peter, James, and John, we read:

That His face did shine as the sun,
and His garments became white as the light.
That Moses and Elias appeared talking with Him.
That a bright cloud overshadowed the disciples;
and that a voice was heard out of the cloud, saying,
This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.
(Matthew 17:1-5)

I have been instructed
that the Lord then represented the Word;
"His face that did shine as the sun,"
His Divine good;
"His garments that became as the light,"
His Divine truth;
"Moses and Elias,"
the historical and the prophetical Word;
"Moses," the Word that was written by him
and the historical Word in general,
and "Elias," the prophetical Word;
and the "bright cloud that overshadowed the disciples,"
the Word in the sense of the letter;
and therefore a voice was heard from this cloud
which said, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him."
For all utterances and answers from heaven
are made exclusively by means of ultimate things
such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word.
For they are made in fullness, from the Lord.

SS 49 [1, 2, 3]   

The power of Divine truth
is directed especially against falsities and evils,
thus against the hells.
The fight against these must be waged
by means of truths
from the sense of the letter of the Word.
Moreover it is by means of the truths in a person
that the Lord has the power to save him;
for a person is reformed and regenerated
and is at the same time taken out of hell
and introduced into heaven,
by means of truths
from the sense of the letter of the Word.
This power the Lord took upon Himself,
even as to His Divine Human,
after He had fulfilled all things of the Word
down to its ultimates.

Hereafter you shall see the Son of man
sitting at the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven.
(Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62)

The "Son of man" is the Lord as to the Word;
the "clouds of heaven" are the Word
in the sense of the letter;
to "sit at the right hand of God"
is omnipotence by means of the Word.
The Lord's power from the ultimate things of truth
was represented by the Nazirites in the Jewish Church;
and by Samson, of whom it is said
that he was a Nazirite from his mother's womb,
and that his power lay in his hair.
Nazirite and Naziriteship also mean the hair.

That Samson's power lay in his hair,
he himself made plain, saying,

There has not come a razor upon my head,
because I have been a Nazirite
from my mother's womb;
if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me,
and I shall become weak,
and be like any other man.
(Judges 16:17)

No one can know why the Naziriteship
(by which is meant the hair) was instituted,
or how it came
that Samson's strength was from the hair,
unless he knows
what is meant in the Word by the "head."
The "head" means the heavenly wisdom
which angels and people have from the Lord
by means of Divine truth;
consequently the "hair of the head"
means heavenly wisdom in ultimate things,
and also Divine truth in ultimate things.

 

SS 40, 42 - The Literal Sense of the Word

SS 40

The truths in the Word’s literal sense
are in part not naked truths,
but appearances of truth,
and are seemingly images and metaphors
taken from the kinds of things found in nature . . ..
However, because they are correspondent terms,
they are the receptacles and homes of genuine truth.
They are like vessels enclosing such truths
and containing them,
like a crystal goblet filled with vintage wine,
or like a silver dish containing tasty foodstuffs.
Or they are like garments clothing them,
as swaddling cloths clothe a baby,
or a pretty dress a maiden.
They are also like the facts known by the natural self,
which embrace within them
the perceptions of and affections for truth
belonging to the spiritual self.

The naked truths themselves
which are enclosed, contained, clothed and embraced
are those found in the Word’s spiritual sense,
and the naked goods are those
found in its celestial sense.

SS 42

Since our Word in its inmost embrace is,
owing to its celestial sense,
like a flame that kindles,
and since in its intermediate embrace it is,
owing to its spiritual sense,
like a light that enlightens,
therefore the Word in its outmost embrace is,
owing to its natural sense
and the two inner senses it contains,
like a ruby and a diamond —
like a ruby because of the celestial flame,
and like a diamond because of the spiritual light.

Because that is the nature of the Word
in its literal sense as regards its transparence,
therefore the Word in that sense is meant by
-- the foundations of the wall of Jerusalem,
-- by the Urim and Thummim in the ephod of Aaron,
-- by the Garden of Eden
in which the King of Tyre had been;
-- and also by the curtains and veils of the Tabernacle,
-- and by the outer arrangements
of the Temple in Jerusalem.
However, it is meant in its real glory
by the Lord when He was transfigured.

 

SS 29 - The Number Three

SS 29

. . . the number three in the Word means,
in the spiritual sense,
something complete and perfect,
and everything together.
And because
this is the symbolic meaning of the number,
it is therefore employed in the Word
whenever something of that sort is indicated,
as in the following instances:

Isaiah walked naked and barefoot three years.
(Isaiah 20:3)

Jehovah called Samuel three times,
and Samuel ran three times to Eli,
and Eli understood him the third time.
(I Samuel 3:1-8)

David said to Jonathan
that he would hide himself in the field three days;
and Jonathan afterwards
shot three arrows at the side of the stone;
and after that David bowed himself down
three times before Jonathan.
(I Samuel 20:5, 12-41)

Elijah stretched himself three times
over the widow's son.
(I Kings 17:21)

Elijah commanded that they should
pour water on the burnt-offering three times.
(I Kings 18:34)

Jesus said,
The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven,
which a woman took
and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened.
(Matthew 13:33)

Jesus said to Peter
that he should deny Him three times.
(Matthew 26:34)

The Lord said three times to Peter, Do you love Me?
(John 21:15-17)

Jonah was in the whale's belly
three days and three nights.
(Johan 1:17)

Jesus said, Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.
(John 2:19; Matthew 26:61)

Jesus prayed three times in Gethsemane.
(Matthew 26:39-44)

Jesus rose again on the third day.
(Matthew 28:1)

And so on in many other places
where three is mentioned.
And it is mentioned wherever
the subject is a finished and perfect work,
because that is the symbolic meaning of the number.

 

SS 21 , 23 - From the Most Ancients to Enoch to the World

SS 21

. . . the people of the Most Ancient Church
(the church before the flood)
were of a genius so heavenly
that they spoke with angels of heaven,
and that they were able to speak with them
by means of correspondences.
From this
the state of their wisdom was rendered such
that whatever they saw in this world
they thought about not only in a natural way,
but spiritually also at the same time,
so that they thought unitedly with angels.
I have been instructed besides
that Enoch
(of whom mention is made in Genesis5:21-24
together with his associates,
collected correspondences
from the lips of those men of the Most Ancient Church,
and transmitted the knowledge of them to posterity,
and that in consequence of this
the science of correspondences was not only known
but was also much cultivated
in many kingdoms of Asia,
especially in the land of Canaan,
in Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Arabia,
and also in Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh;
and that it was carried over
from places on the seacoast there into Greece;
but there it was turned into fabulous stories,
as is evident from the earliest writers of that country.

SS 23 [3]

The knowledge of correspondences
survived among a number of the orientals,
even until the Lord's advent,
as is evident from the wise men of the east
who came to the Lord at His birth;
and this was why a star went before them,
and why they brought with them as gifts
gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11).
For the "star that went before them"
signified knowledge from heaven;
"gold," celestial good;
"frankincense," spiritual good;
and "myrrh," natural good;
from which three is all worship.

SS 18 - The Spiritual Sense of the Word Is Divinely Inspired

SS 18 [1, 3]

It is from the spiritual sense
that the Word is Divinely inspired,
and is holy in every word.

It is said in the church that the Word is holy,
and this because Jehovah God spoke it;
but as its holiness is not apparent
from the letter alone,
he who on this account once doubts its holiness,
afterwards confirms his doubt
when reading the Word
by many things in it,
for he then thinks,
Can this be holy; can this be Divine?
Therefore lest such a thought
should flow in with many,
and should afterwards prevail,
and thereby the conjunction
of the Lord with the church,
in which is the Word,
should perish,
it has now pleased the Lord
to reveal the spiritual sense,
in order that it may be known
where in the Word this holiness lies hid.

And so when he sees in the Word
such frequent mention of gardens, groves, and forests,
and also of the trees in them,
as the olive, vine, cedar, poplar, oak;
and also such frequent mention of
the lamb, sheep, goat, calf, ox;
and likewise of mountains, hills, valleys,
and the fountains, rivers, and waters in them,
and many like things,
one who knows nothing
about the spiritual sense of the Word
must believe that these things only are meant.
For he is not aware that a garden, grove, and forest,
mean wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge;
that an olive, vine, cedar, poplar, and oak,
mean the celestial, spiritual, rational, natural,
and sensuous good and truth of the church;
that a lamb, sheep, goat, calf, and ox
mean innocence, charity, and natural affection;
that mountains, hills, and valleys,
mean higher, lower, and lowest things of the church;
that Egypt signifies memory-knowledge,
Asshur reason,
Edom the natural,
Moab the adulteration of good,
the sons of Ammon the adulteration of truth,
Tyre and Sidon the knowledges of truth and good,
and Gog external worship without internal.
But when a person knows these things
he is able to consider
that the Word treats solely of heavenly things,
and that these earthly things
are merely the subjects in which the heavenly things are.

 

SS 13 - Revelation 9

SS 13 [1, 4]

The subject treated of here
is the state of the church
when all knowledges of truth from the Word
have been destroyed, and consequently people,
having become sensuous,
persuades himself that falsities are truths.

This is the spiritual sense of these words,
of which nothing appears in the sense of the letter.
Everywhere in the Revelation it is the same.
Be it known that in the spiritual sense
all things hang together in a continuous connection,
which is fitted together in such a manner
by the force and meaning of all the words
in the literal or natural sense,
that if even a little word were taken out of it,
the connection would be broken
and the coherence would perish.
In order to prevent this,
it is added at the end of this prophetical book,

That not a word shall be taken away.
(Revelation 22:19)

It is the same with the books
of the prophets of the Old Testament;
in order to prevent anything
from being taken away from them,
it came to pass of the Lord's Divine Providence
that everything therein
down to the very letters was counted.
This was done by the Masorites.
__________

If you want to read the whole number:

SS 13

In the Revelation, chapter 9, we read:

The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit; and he opened the bottomless pit, and there went up a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit; and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war, and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold; and their faces were as the faces of men; and they had hair as the hair of women; and their teeth were as the teeth of lions; and they had breastplates as of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to war; and they had tails like scorpions; and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek he hath the name Apollyon.
(Revelation 9:1-3, 7-11)

Neither could these things be understood by anyone
unless the spiritual sense were revealed to him;
for nothing here is said emptily,
but every single thing has its signification.
The subject here treated of is the state of the church
when all knowledges of truth from the Word
have been destroyed,
and consequently people,
having become sensuous,
persuades himself that falsities are truths.

The "star fallen from heaven"
signifies the knowledges of truth destroyed;
the "sun and air darkened"
signifies the light of truth become thick darkness;
the "locusts that came out of the smoke of the pit"
signify falsities in the outermost things
such as exist with those
who have become sensuous,
and who see and judge all things from fallacies;
a "scorpion" signifies their persuasiveness.
That the locusts appeared
"like horses prepared for war"
signifies their reasonings
as it were from the understanding of truth;
that the locusts
had "crowns like gold upon their heads,
and faces as the faces of men"
signifies that they appeared to themselves
as conquerors, and as wise;
their having "hair as the hair of women"
signifies that they appeared to themselves
as if they were in the affection of truth;
their having "teeth as the teeth of lions"
signifies that sensuous things,
which are ultimate things of the natural man,
appeared to them as having power over all things.

[3] Their having "breastplates as breastplates of iron"
signifies argumentations from fallacies
by which they fight and prevail;
that "the sound of their wings
was as the sound of chariots running to war"
signifies reasonings as if from the truths of doctrine
from the Word for which they were to fight;
their having "tails like scorpions"
signifies persuasions;
their having "stings in their tails"
signifies their cunning arts of deceiving thereby;
their having "power to hurt men five months"
signifies that they induce a kind of stupor on those
who are in the understanding of truth
and perception of good;
their having
"a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit,
whose name is Abaddon or Apollyon"
signifies that their falsities were from hell,
where dwell those
who are merely natural and in self-intelligence.

[4]  This is the spiritual sense of these words,
of which nothing appears in the sense of the letter.
Everywhere in the Revelation it is the same.
Be it known that in the spiritual sense
all things hang together in a continuous connection,
which is fitted together in such a manner
by the force and meaning of all the words
in the literal or natural sense,
that if even a little word were taken out of it,
the connection would be broken
and the coherence would perish.
In order to prevent this,
it is added at the end of this prophetical book,

That not a word shall be taken away.
(Revelation 22:19)

It is the same with the books
of the prophets of the Old Testament;
in order to prevent anything
from being taken away from them,
it came to pass of the Lord's Divine Providence
that everything therein
down to the very letters was counted.
This was done by the Masorites.

 

SS 5, 6 - The Spiritual Meaning of the Word

SS 5

The spiritual meaning is not the sense
that shines from the literal one
when one is studying the Word
and interpreting it in order to confirm
some dogma of the church.
This sense is the Word’s literal sense.
Rather its spiritual meaning is one
not apparent in the literal one.
The spiritual meaning lies within the literal one,
like the soul within the body,
like thought within the eyes,
and affection within the face,
which operate in concert,
like cause and effect.

That spiritual meaning
is what principally causes the Word to be spiritual,
not only for people, but also for angels.
Consequently that meaning is
the means by which
the Word communicates with the heavens.

SS 6 [2]

The angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom,
of whom is composed the third or highest heaven,
are in that Divine which proceeds from the Lord
that is called the celestial,
for they are in the good of love from the Lord.
The angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom,
of whom is composed the second or middle heaven,
are in that Divine which proceeds from the Lord
that is called the spiritual,
for they are in truths of wisdom from the Lord.
But the people of the church on earth
are in the Divine Natural,
which also proceeds from the Lord.
From this it follows that the Divine
in proceeding from the Lord to its ultimates
descends through three degrees,
and is named the celestial, the spiritual,
and the natural.
The Divine which comes down
from the Lord to people descends
through these three degrees;
and when it has come down,
it holds these three degrees contained within it.
Such is everything Divine,
so that when it is in its ultimate degree
it is in its fullness.
Such is the Word;
in its ultimate sense it is natural,
in its interior sense it is spiritual,
and in its inmost sense it is celestial;
and in each sense it is Divine.

 

SS 3 - Reading the Word Conjoins the Lord With Us

SS 3

. . . the style in the Word is the Divine style itself,
with which no other style can be compared,
however sublime and admirable it seems.
For it is as darkness compared to light.

The style in the Word is such
that there is something holy
in every sentence and in every word,
indeed in some places in the very letters.
Because of that
the Word conjoins a person with the Lord
and opens heaven.

From the Lord proceed two things:
Divine love and Divine wisdom.
Or to say the same thing,
Divine goodness and Divine truth.
For Divine goodness is a property of His Divine love,
and Divine truth a property of His Divine wisdom.
In its essence the Word is both of these.
And because, as we said,
it conjoins a person with the Lord and opens heaven,
therefore the Word fills a person who reads it
prompted by the Lord,
and not by himself simply.
It fills him with the goodness of love
and truths of wisdom —
his will with the goodness of love,
and his intellect with truths of wisdom.
In this way, a person has life by means of the Word.
________
SS = Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture

 

DLORD 63 - The Holy City Jerusalem

DLORD 63

By the "Holy City Jerusalem" is meant
this New Church as to doctrine,
and therefore it was seen
coming down from God out of heaven,
for the doctrine of genuine truth comes to us
from the Lord through heaven,
and from no other source.
As the Church in respect to doctrine is meant
by the City New Jerusalem, it is said:

Prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband.
(Revelation 21:2);

and afterwards,

One of the seven angels
who had the seven bowls
full of the seven last plagues
came and said to me,
"Come, I will show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb."
And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high,
and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God.
(Revelation 21:9-10)

That by "bride" and "wife" is meant the church,
when the Lord is meant by
"bridegroom" and "husband," is well known.
The church is a "bride"
when she is desirous to receive the Lord;
and a "wife," when she does receive Him.
That the Lord is meant by "her Husband" is evident;
for it is said, "the bride the Lamb's wife."

 

DLORD 55, 57 - Acknowledgment

DLORD 55 [3]

. . . the life of the whole heaven,
and the wisdom of all the angels,
are founded upon the acknowledgment
and consequent confession of one God,
and upon the faith that this one God is also Man,
and that He is the Lord,
who is at once both God and Man.

DLORD 57

. . . it is acknowledgment and thought
which conjoin a person with the Lord.

DLORD 46, 51 - The Holy Spirit

DLORD 46 [2]

The Holy Spirit Is the Divine Proceeding from the Lord,
and This Is the Lord Himself.

The Lord told His disciples to baptize
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
because there is a trine or trinity in the Lord.
For there is the Divinity called the Father,
the Divine Human called the Son,
and the emanating Divinity called the Holy Spirit.
The Divine called the Father
and the Divinity called the Son
are the originating Divinity,
and the emanating Divinity called the Holy Spirit
is the instrumental Divinity.


DLORD 51 [3, 5]

Because the Spirit of truth, or Holy Spirit,
is the same as the Lord, who is truth itself,
therefore we are also told,
“The Holy Spirit did not yet exist,
For after the Lord’s glorification
or complete union with the Father,
which was achieved by His suffering of the cross,
the Lord was then
Divine wisdom itself and Divine truth itself,
thus the Holy Spirit.

The Lord breathed on His disciples and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit, ”
because respiration in heaven
is dependent wholly on the Lord.
For angels breathe and their hearts beat
just as in the case of people.
Their respiration accords with
their reception of Divine wisdom from the Lord,
and the beating of their hearts or pulse
accords with their reception
of Divine love from the Lord.

. . . it is said of the Holy Spirit
that it enlightens, teaches, inspires.

 

DLORD 37 - The Lord is God Himself, from Whom and Concerning Whom Is the Word.

DLORD 37 [1-2]

In Chapter I. we undertook to show that
universal Holy Scripture treats of the Lord,
and that the Lord is the Word.
This shall now be further shown
from passages of the Word
in which the Lord is called "Jehovah,"
the "God of Israel and of Jacob,"
the "Holy One of Israel,"
the "Lord," and "God;" and also "King,"
"Jehovah's Anointed," and "David."
I may first mention
that I have been permitted to run through
all the Prophets and the Psalms of David,
and to examine each verse
and see what it treats of,
and I have seen that the only subjects treated of are:
the church set up anew
and to be set up anew by the Lord;
the advent, combats, glorification, redemption,
and salvation, of the Lord;
heaven from Him;
and, with these, their opposites.
As all these are works of the Lord,
it became evident
that universal Holy Scripture is concerning Him,
and therefore that the Lord is the Word.

But this can be seen only by those
who are in enlightenment from the Lord,
and who also know the spiritual sense of the Word.
All the angels of heaven are in this sense,
and therefore
when the Word is being read by a person,
they so comprehend it.
For spirits and angels are constantly with a person,
and as they are spiritual
they understand spiritually
all that a person understands naturally.

 

DLORD 34, 34 - The Divine and the Human In the Lord

DLORD 34 [3]

. . . the Divine and the Human in the Lord
are one Person;
and that the Human also is Divine.
For the Redeemer and Savior of the world
is no other than the Lord
in respect to the Divine Human,
and this is what is called the Son.
Moreover redemption and salvation
are an attribute proper to His Human,
which is called merit and righteousness;
for it was His Human
that endured temptations
and the passion of the cross;
and therefore it was by means of His Human
that He effected redemption and salvation.

DLORD 35 [3]

As from His birth
the Lord had a human from the mother,
and as He by successive steps put it off,
it follows that while He was in the world
He had two states,
the one called the state of humiliation
or emptying out (exinanition*),
and the other the state of glorification or unition
with the Divine called the Father.
He was in the state of humiliation at the time
and in the degree
that He was in the human from the mother;
and in that of glorification
at the time and in the degree
that He was in the Human from the Father.
In the state of humiliation
He prayed to the Father
as to one who was other than Himself;
but in the state of glorification
He spoke with the Father as with Himself.
In this latter state He said
that the Father was in Him and He in the Father,
and that the Father and He were one.
But in the state of humiliation
He underwent temptations, and suffered the cross,
and prayed to the Father not to forsake Him.
For the Divine could not be tempted,
much less could it suffer the cross.
__________

*  exinanition -
1. archaic : an emptying or enfeebling : exhaustion.
2. : humiliation, abasement.
(Merriam-Webster)
 

DLORD 29, 32 - His Body and Soul Are One

DLORD 29 [2]

. . . the Divine cannot be separated from the human,
nor the human from the Divine,
as separating them
would be like separating soul and body.
. . . Jesus was conceived of Jehovah God
and born from the virgin Mary,
thus that the Divine was present in Him
and was His soul.

Now because His soul
was the Divinity itself of the Father,
it follows that His body or Human
must also have become also Divine;
for when one element is Divine,
the other must be also.

In this way and no other
are the Father and Son one —
the Father being in the Son,
and the Son in the Father —
and all things of the Son are the Father’s,
and all things of the Father are the Son’s,
as the Lord Himself teaches in His Word.

DLORD 32 [7-8]

(Many quotes from the Lord's New Testament
precede this section.)
In these places,
and in all others in which He is mentioned,
the Father means
the Divinity present in the Lord from conception,
which, according to
the Christian world’s doctrine of faith,
was like the soul in the body
in the case of any other person.
The Human itself originating from that Divinity
is the Son of God.

Now because this, too, became Divine,
and in order to keep people
from turning to the Father alone
and so in thought, faith and their resulting worship
separating the Father
from the Lord in whom the Father is,
therefore after the Lord taught
that the Father and He are one,
that the Father is in Him and He in the Father,
that His followers should abide in Him,
and that no one comes to the Father
except through Him,
He taught in addition
that people should believe in Him,
and that a person is saved
by a faith focused on Him.

Any idea
that the Human in the Lord became Divine
is impossible for many in the Christian world
to comprehend,
chiefly because they think of a person
in terms of his material body
and not in terms of his spiritual one,
even though angels, who are spiritual beings,
are fully human in form,
and everything Divine
that emanates from Jehovah God,
from the firsts of it in heaven
to the lasts of it in the world,
inclines to the human form.

 

AE 1135 - The Operation of Divine Providence

AE 1135:4

. . . it is important to make known
that the Divine providence operates
every particular thing pertaining to man,
and even in the most minute particulars,
for his eternal salvation;
for the salvation of man
was the end of the creation of heaven and of earth.
This end was
that out of the human race
a heaven might be formed,
in which God could dwell as in His own very home,
consequently the salvation of man
is the all in all of the Divine providence.
But the Divine providence proceeds so secretly
that man can see scarcely a trace of it,
and yet it is active
in the most minute particulars relating to him
from infancy to old age in the world,
and afterwards to eternity,
and in each one of these
it is the eternal that is regarded.
____________
'man' is used to indicate humanity/people

 

DLORD 20, 21, 23 - The Son of God, the Son of Man

The Lord in respect to the Divine Human
is called the Son of God;
and in respect to the Word
the Son of Man.

DLORD 20

As by "the Son of God" is meant the Lord
as to the Human which He assumed in the world,
which is the Divine Human,
it is evident what is meant by
the Lord's so frequently saying
that He was sent by the Father into the world,
and that He came forth from the Father.
By His being sent by the Father into the world,
is meant that
He was conceived from Jehovah the Father.
That nothing else is meant by being sent,
and sent by the Father,
is evident from all the passages where it is said
that He did the will of the Father and His works,
which were that He conquered the hells,
glorified His Human, taught the Word,
and establishing a new church,
which could not have been done
except by means of a Human
conceived from Jehovah and born of a virgin,
that is, unless God had been made Man.

DLORD 21

Many people today think of the Lord
only as they do of an ordinary man,
one like themselves,
because they think only of His humanity
and not at the same time of His Divinity,
even though His Divinity and humanity
cannot be separated.
For the Lord is God and man,
and God and man in the Lord are not two,
but one person,
as completely one person
as soul and body are one person . . ..

DLORD 23

The Lord is called "the Son of man"
where the subject treated of is
His passion, Judgment, His advent, and, in general,
redemption, salvation, reformation, and regeneration.
The reason is that "the Son of man"
is the Lord in respect to the Word;
and as the Word
He suffered, judges, came into the world,
redeems, saves, reforms, and regenerates.

DLORD 18 - An Imputation of the Lord’s Merit Is Nothing Else Than the Forgiveness of Sins Following Repentance

DLORD 18 [2-3]

. . . an imputation of merit
is a word without meaning,
unless one interprets it to mean
a forgiveness of sins following repentance.
For no attribute of the Lord
can be imputed to a person.

Salvation by the Lord, on the other hand,
can be ascribed to a person after he repents,
that is, after he has seen and acknowledged his sins
and then desisted from them,
doing so in obedience to the Lord.
Salvation is then ascribed to him
in the measure that he is saved,
not by his own merit,
or in consequence of his own righteousness,
but owing to the Lord
who alone fought and overcame the hells,
and who alone also afterward fights for a person
and overcomes the hells for him.

. . . If imputation were possible,
an impenitent and impious person
could impute the Lord’s merit to himself
and think himself justified on that account,
which would be to defile the sacred with the profane
and profane the Lord’s name.
For it would keep
the person’s thought fixed on the Lord
and his will in hell,
and yet the will is the totality of the person.

Faith may be a faith in God,
and it may be a faith in man.
Those people have a faith in God who repent,
whereas those people have a faith in man
who do not repent
and yet still think about imputation.
Faith in God, too, is living faith,
whereas faith in man is a lifeless faith.

 

DLORD 16, 17 - By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them (part 2, useful but long)

DLORD 16 [1, 5-7]

The state of the church founded on the Word
and represented in the prophets
was what bearing the iniquities and sins
of the people means.    

That the Lord, as the grand prophet,
represented the state of the church
in relation to the Word,
is apparent from the particulars of His suffering,
as for example, that He was betrayed by Judas;
that the chief priests and elders
arrested Him and condemned Him;
that they struck Him blows;
that they struck Him on the head with a reed;
that they put on it a crown of thorns;
that they divided His garments,
and for His tunic cast lots;
that they crucified Him;
that they gave Him vinegar to drink;
that they pierced His side;
that He was entombed,
and on the third day rose again.

--  The Lord’s being betrayed by Judas
symbolized His betrayal by the Jewish nation,
who had the Word;
for Judas represented that nation.

--  The Lord’s being arrested and condemned
by the chief priests and elders
symbolized His having been so treated
by the whole Jewish Church.

--  His being whipped,
spat upon in the face, struck blows,
and struck on the head with a reed
symbolized the Jews’ treatment of the Word
in a similar way in respect to its Divine truths,
all of which have to do with the Lord.

--  His having a crown of thorns put on Him
symbolized the Jews’ falsification
and adulteration of those truths.

--  Their dividing the Lord’s garments
and casting lots for His tunic
symbolized their having done away
with all the Word’s truths,
but not its spiritual sense —
the Lord’s tunic symbolizing
that level of meaning in the Word.

--  Their crucifying the Lord
symbolized their destruction and profanation
of the entire Word.

--  Their offering Him vinegar to drink
symbolized nothing but truths falsified and falsities,
which is why He did not drink it,
and why He then said, “It is finished.”  

--  Their piercing His side
symbolized their complete extinction
of every truth in the Word
and every goodness in it.

--  His being entombed symbolized His rejection
of any remaining human quality
received from His mother.

--  His rising again on the third day
symbolized His glorification.

The same things are symbolized
by those passages in the Prophets and Psalms
where they are foretold.

As a consequence, after the Lord had been whipped
and brought out wearing the crown of thorns
and a purple garment that the soldiers put on Him,
He said, “Behold, the man!” (John 19:1, 5).
He said this because “the man”
symbolizes the church,
inasmuch as the Son of man
symbolizes the truth of the church, thus the Word.

It is apparent from this now
that to bear iniquities means to represent
and portray in person
sins against the Word’s Divine truths.

. . . the Lord endured and suffered these things
as the Son of man,
and not as the Son of God;
for the Son of man
symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word.

DLORD 17 [1-2, 3]

We must now say something about
what is meant by taking away sins.
Taking away sins has the same meaning
as the redeeming and saving of mankind.
For the Lord came into the world to save mankind.
Without His advent
no mortal could have been
reformed and regenerated, thus saved.
But this became possible after the Lord
had taken away all power from the devil,
that is, from hell,
and had glorified His humanity,
which is to say,
had united it to the Divinity of His Father.
If He had not done both of these,
no one could have received any Divine truth
and retained it in him,
and still less any Divine goodness;
for the devil,
who previously had possessed a superior power,
would have plucked these from his heart.

It is apparent from this
that by His suffering of the cross
the Lord did not take away any sins,
but that He bears them away,
that is, removes them,
in the case of people who believe in Him
by living in accordance with His commandments.

Everyone can see from reason alone,
provided he possesses some enlightenment,
that sins cannot be removed from a person
except through the practice of actual repentance,
which is for the person to see his sins,
implore the Lord’s help,
and desist from them.

To see, believe or teach anything else
is not based on the Word,
nor does it accord with sound reason,
but it springs from lust and a corrupt will,
which constitute a person’s native character
and infatuate his intelligence. 

DLORD 15 - By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them (part 1)

DLORD 15 [1, 2, 8]

Some people in the church believe
that by His suffering of the cross
the Lord took away sins
and made satisfaction to the Father,
and so redeemed mankind.

Some believe, too, that He transferred to Himself
the sins of people who have faith in Him,
bore them,
and cast them into the depths of the sea,
that is, into hell.

. . . First, therefore, we must say
what bearing our iniquities means,
and then what it means to take them away.

To bear iniquities means nothing else
than to endure severe temptations or trials,
and to allow the Jews to treat Him
as they treated the Word.
He allowed them to treat Him in the same way
because He embodied the Word.
For the church
which existed at that time among the Jews
was completely destroyed,
having been destroyed
by their perverting everything in the Word,
to the point that there was no truth left.
Consequently neither did they acknowledge the Lord.
This is what is meant and symbolized by
everything having to do with the Lord’s suffering.

The prophets were treated similarly,
because they represented
the Lord in relation to the Word
and so to the church,
and the Lord was the prophet.

. . . the prophets represented
the state of the church and the Word.
For whoever represents one,
also represents the other,
since the church is founded on the Word,
and is a church in accordance with
its reception of the Word in its life and faith.

Consequently wherever prophets
in either Testament are mentioned,
they symbolize the doctrine of the church
drawn from the Word.
Moreover, the Lord, as the greatest prophet,
symbolizes the church itself and the Word itself. 

 

LORD 12 - The Lord's Temptations

DLORD 12

People in the church know
that the Lord conquered death,
which means hell,
and that He afterward
ascended with glory into heaven.
But they still do not know
that the Lord overcame death or hell
by means of battles,
which are temptations or trials;
that by these means
He at the same time glorified His humanity;
and that the suffering of the cross
was the final battle or trial
by which He overcame hell or death
and glorified His humanity.

Much is said about these trials
in the Prophets and Psalms,
but not so much in the Gospels.
In the latter,
the temptations or trials He endured in childhood
are summarized and described
by His trials in the wilderness
and subsequent temptations by the devil,
and the last ones
by those He suffered
in Gethsemane and on the cross.

DLORD 8 - The Lord Fulfilled All of the Law

DLORD 8

Many people today believe that,
when it is said of the Lord that He fulfilled the Law,
it means that He fulfilled
all the commandments of the Decalogue,
and that in so doing He became righteousness
and at the same time
justified people in the world by that belief.

Nevertheless, that is not the meaning.
Rather the meaning is that He fulfilled
everything written about Him
in the Law and the Prophets,
that is, throughout Holy Scripture,
because it has Him alone as its subject . . ..

The reason many people have believed otherwise
is that they have not searched the scriptures
and seen what is meant by the Law there.

In a strict sense the Law there means
the ten commandments of the Decalogue.
In a broader sense it means
everything written by Moses in his five books.
And in the broadest sense
it means the whole of the Word.

 

DLORD -1, 2 - The Lord Is the Word

DLORD 1 [1, 2]

The Holy Scripture Throughout
Has the Lord As Its Subject,
and the Lord Embodies the Word

We read in John:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
This was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him,
and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life,
and the life was the light of people.
And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it.
(John 1:1-5)

Why the Lord is called the Word
is little understood in the church.
However, He is called the Word
because the term “Word”
symbolizes Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself,
and the Lord embodies
Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself.
That, too, is why He is called the light,
which is also said to have come into the world.

Because Divine wisdom and Divine love are united,
and were united in the Lord from eternity,
therefore we are told as well
that “In Him was life,
and the life was the light of people.”
Life means Divine love,
and light Divine wisdom.

This is the union meant by the statement
that the Word was in the beginning with God
and that God was the Word.
With God means in God,
for wisdom is present in love,
and love in wisdom.

DLORD 2 [2]

As a result, everyone,
even at this day,
who turns to the Lord alone
when he reads the Word,
and prays to Him,
is enlightened as regards it.
__________

DLORD - Doctrine of the Lord

Comment:  This morning, I did something that I do often, but not always, and read through the Table of Contents for this work before beginning the first chapter.  Over the years, I've come to appreciate this practice.  If you want a clear and concise explanation of the Lord, you will find it in the Table of Contents in the Doctrine of the Lord.

  

 

EU 169 - What It Is to Love the Lord and the Neighbor; EU 174 - Self-Love

EU 169

. . . to love the Lord
is to love the commandments which are from Him,
which is to live according to them from love.
That love toward the neighbor
is to will good and consequently do good
to a fellow-citizen, to one's country,
to the church, and to the Lord's kingdom,
not for the sake of self, to be seen, or to merit,
but from the affection of good.
Concerning regeneration,
we observed
that those who are regenerated by the Lord,
and commit truths immediately to life,
come into an interior perception concerning them;
but that those who receive truths first in the memory,
and afterwards will them and do them,
are those who are in faith;
for they act from faith,
which is then called conscience.

EU 174

. . . the dominion of self-love,
which is opposite to
the dominion of love towards the neighbor,
began when man alienated himself from the Lord;
for in proportion as a person
does not love and worship the Lord,
in the same proportion
he loves and worships himself,
and so far also he loves the world.
. . . For in proportion as self-love increased,
in the same proportion all kinds of evil,
as enmity, envy, hatred, revenge, cruelty and deceit,
increased with it,
being exercised against all who opposed them.
For from the proprium
in which those are who are in self-love,
nothing but evil springs,
inasmuch as a person's proprium is nothing but evil,
and because the proprium is evil,
it does not receive good from heaven.
Consequently self-love, while it has dominion,
is the father of all such evils.
And that love is also of such a nature
that as far as the reins are relaxed it rushes on,
until at length every one possessed by it
wishes to domineer over all others in the whole world,
and to possess all the goods of others.
Yea, even this is not enough,
but he wishes to have dominion over
the whole heaven,
as may be evident from the Babylon of this day.
This then is the rule of self-love,
from which the rule of the love of the neighbor differs
as much as heaven does from hell.