TCR 11 - belief and knowledge

TCR 11 [3]

Belief in God 
comes into a person by the front door,
that is, from the soul
into the higher regions of the understanding.
But knowledge about God 
comes in by the back door,
because it is absorbed by the understanding
from the revelation of the Word
by means of the bodily senses.
The two paths leading in
meet in the midst of the understanding;
there, natural belief,
which is merely a strongly held opinion,
becomes spiritual,
that is to say, a real acknowledgment.
So the human understanding
is like an exchange where currencies are changed.

Put Your Hope in God

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed with in?

Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

(Psalm 42:5, repeated 42:11)

TCR 2, 3 - believe in the Lord

TCR 2, 3

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah,
came into the world to subdue the hells
and to glorify His Human.
Without this no mortal could have been saved,
and those are saved who believe in Him.

It is a universal point of faith
on the part of a person
to believe in the Lord,
and this is the way to salvation.
Believing in Him
means having confidence that He is the Savior;
and since only those who lead good lives
can have such confidence,
this too is meant by believing in Him.

Trust in the Lord

Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret - it leads only to evil.
For evil men will be cut off,
but those who hope in the Lord
will inherit the land.

(Psalm 37:1-9)

ISB 16 - three angelic heavens, three degrees of the human mind

ISB 16 [5-6]
. . . there are three angelic heavens:
a highest, which is also called the third heaven,
where are the angels of the highest degree;
a middle, which is also called the second heaven,
where are the angels of the middle degree;
and a lowest, which is also called the first heaven,
where are the angels of the lowest degree.
Those heavens are also distinguished
according to the degrees of wisdom and love.
Those who are in the lowest heaven
are in the love of knowing truths and goods;
those who are in the middle heaven
are in the love of understanding them;
and those who are in the highest heaven
are in the love of being wise,
that is, of living according to those things
which they know and understand.

Since the angelic heavens
are distinguished into three degrees,
therefore the human mind
is also distinguished into three degrees,
because the human mind is an image of heaven,
that is, it is a heaven in the least form.
So it is that a person can become an angel
of one of those three heavens,
and this is effected according to his reception
of wisdom and love from the Lord:
an angel of the lowest heaven
if he receives only the love of knowing truths and goods;
an angel of the middle heaven
if he receives the love of understanding them;
and an angel of the highest heaven
if he receives the love of being wise,
that is, of living according to them.

Rejoice and Sing

Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord's unfailing love
surrounds the man who trust in him.

Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!

(Psalm 32:10-11)

ISB 11 – Our Garment

ISB 11

. . . the spiritual clothes itself with the natural,
as a person clothes himself with a garment.
. . . the body grows old like a garment;
but not the soul,
because this is a spiritual substance,
which has nothing with common
with the changes of nature . . .

Wait

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.

(Psalm 27:13-14)

ISB 2 -order is truth but not hypothetical truth; ISB - 8 - influx from God

ISB 2
 All that which is from order is truth,
and truth manifests itself by the light implanted in it,
even in the shade of reason,
in which hypotheses are.
But there are three things
that involve this hypothesis in shade;
ignorance of what the soul is,
ignorance of what the spiritual is,
and ignorance of what influx is;
therefore these three must first be unfolded
before reason sees the truth itself.
For hypothetical truth is not truth itself,
but only a conjecture of truth.
It is as a picture on the wall seen at night
by the light of the stars,
on which the mind induces various forms
according to its fancy.
It is otherwise 
when the light of the sun after the dawn
shines upon it . . ..

ISB 8 [5]
. . . the good of love and the truth of wisdom
flow from God into the soul of man conjointly,
that is, united into one,
but that they are divided by a person in their progression,
and are conjoined only with those
who suffer themselves to be led by God . . ..

Taking Refuge in God

Keep me safe, O God,
for in You I take refuge.

You have made known to me the path of life;
You will fill me with joy in Your presence,
with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

(Psalm 16:1,11)

BE 120 - a holy truth

BE 120

. . . in the Lord God, the Savior Jesus Christ,
there is a Divine Trinity
which is the Originating Divine, called the Father,
the Divine Human which is the Son,
and the Divine Proceeding which is the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus Christ dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
(Colossians 2:9)
 

Thus, there is One God in the Church.

Loving the Lord

But let all who take refuge in You be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread Your protection over them,
That those who love Your name
may rejoice in You.
For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous;
You surround them with Your favor
as with a shield.

(Psalm 5:11-12)

BE 116 - the universal of faith is what must enter into each and all things

BE 116

It is a universal of faith,
that God is one in essence and Person,
in whom is the Trinity,
and that the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ is He.
It is a universal of faith,
that no mortal could have been saved,
unless the Lord had come into the world.
It is a universal of faith,
that He came into the world to remove hell from man,
and He removed it by combats against it,
and by victories over it;
thus He subdued it,
and reduced it to order,
and under obedience to Himself.
It is a universal of faith,
that He came into the world to glorify the Human
which He assumed in the world,
that is, to unite it with the Divine from which it was;
thus, having subdued hell,
He keeps it in order
and under obedience to Himself to eternity.
Inasmuch as both these could only be effected
by means of temptations admitted into His Human,
even to the last,
which was the passion of the cross,
therefore He endured that.
These are the universals of faith concerning the Lord.

The universal of Christian faith on a person's part is,
that he should believe in the Lord,
for by believing in Him conjunction with Him is effected,
and by conjunction salvation.
To believe in Him is to have confidence that He will save;
and because none can have such confidence
but he who lives well,
therefore this is also meant by believing in Him.

From the Lord Comes Deliverance

I lie down and sleep;
I wake again,
because the Lord sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.

From the Lord comes deliverance.
May you blessing be on your people.
Selah

(Psalm 3:5-6,8)

BE 111 - only through regeneration can the Lord lead us to good

BE 111

. . . a person is led into good
through regeneration by the Lord.
. . . there is regeneration,
and unless one is regenerated,
he cannot enter into heaven.

The precepts of regeneration are . . . :
-- That evils ought to be shunned,
because they are of the devil and from the devil;
-- that goods ought to be done,

because they are of God and from God;
-- and that the Lord is to be approached,
that He may lead us so to do.

. . . good cannot be implanted
but in proportion as evil is removed;
. . . so long as anyone is in evil,
he is averse to good . . ..

King Josiah

Josiah was eight years old when he became king,

and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.
His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah;
she was from Bozkath.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord

and walked in the ways of his father David,

not turning aside to the right or to the left.

Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary,

“I have found the Book of the Law

In the temple of the Lord.”

he gave it to Shaphan, who read it.

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law,

he tore his robes.

Neither before nor after Josiah

was there a king like him

who turned to the Lord as he did –

with all his heart and with all his soul

and with all his strength,

in accordance with all the Law of Moses.

(2 Kings 22:1-2,8,11; 23:25)

BE 96 - the essentials of the church; BE 103 - the old & new can't be together

BE 96
The essentials of the church,
which conjoin themselves with a faith in one God,
are charity, good works, repentance,
and a life according to the Divine laws;
and because these together with faith
affect and move the will and thought of a person,
they conjoin a person with the Lord,
and the Lord with the person.

BE 103
The reason why the faith of the New Church
cannot by any means
be together with the faith of the former or present church,
is, because they do not agree together in one third,
no, nor even in one tenth part.
The faith of the former church
is described in Revelation (chapter 12) by "the dragon,"
but the faith of the New Church by
"the woman encompassed with the sun,
having upon her head a crown of twelve stars,
whom the dragon pursued,
and at whom he cast water as a flood,
that he might swallow her up,".
These two cannot be together in one city,
much less in one house,
consequently they cannot be together in one mind;
and if they should be together,
the unavoidable consequence must be,
that the woman would be continually exposed
to the anger and insanity of the dragon,
and in fear lest he should devour her son;
for it is said in Revelation, that:

The dragon stood before the woman
who was ready to be delivered,
in order to devour her offspring,
and the woman,
after she had brought forth,
fled into the wilderness.
(Revelation 12:1, 4, 6, 14-17)

Isaiah Gives a Message to Hezekiah

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah:
"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

"This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah:

"This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Once more a remnant of the house of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this."

(2 Kings 19:20,29-31)

BE 92 - two things which form heaven in a person

BE 92
There are two things which form heaven in a person,
namely, the truths of faith and the goods of charity;
the truths of faith
effect the presence of the Lord,
and show the way to heaven,
and the goods of charity
effect conjunction with the Lord,
and introduce into heaven.
And everyone there is introduced into light
according to his affection of truth,
and into heat according to his affection of good.
The affection of truth is faith in its essence,
and the affection of good (is) charity in its essence,
and that the marriage of them both . . ..
The church and heaven make one.

The End of Elisha's Life

Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died.

Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him.

“My father!  My father!” he cried.

“The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so.

“Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel.

When he had taken it Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it.

“Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot.

“The Lord’s arrow of victory, the victory over Aram!”
Elisha declared.

“You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

The he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them.

Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.”

He struck it three times and stopped.

The man of God was angry with him and said,

“You should have struck the ground five or six times;
then you would have defeated Aram 

and completely destroyed it.

But now you will defeat it only three times.”

Elisha died and was buried.

(2 Kings 13:14-20)