TCR 301 - a day for rest

TCR 301
Sabbath in the language of the original means rest.
Among the Children of Israel
the Sabbath was the holiest of observances,
because it represented the Lord.
The six days represented the Lord's toils and battles against the hells,
the seventh His victory over them, and so rest.
Since that day represented the completion
of the Lord's whole act of redemption,
it was for that reason the height of holiness.
When, however, the Lord came into the world,
so that representations of Him ceased,
that day became a day for instruction in Divine matters,
and also a day of rest from work,
for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life,
and a day for love towards the neighbor.

TCR 297 - saying His Name

TCR 297
. . . God is present in everything to do with religion,
and when He is duly invoked,
His presence is summoned by His name,
and He listens.

TCR 287 - 'Do this, and you will live.'

TCR 287 [2]
. . . since the first tablet of the Ten Commandments
contains in summary form the whole of love to God,
and the second tablet contains the whole of love towards the neighbor,
it follows that they contain the whole of doctrine and life.
A look at the two tablets makes it plain that they are so conjoined
that God from His tablet has mankind in view,
and mankind in his turn from his has God in view.
Thus there is a reciprocal viewing,
such that on God's part He never fails to keep mankind in view
and perform the actions needed for his salvation;
and if a person accepts and does the things laid down in his tablet,
the conjunction becomes reciprocal.
Then, as the Lord's words promised to the lawyer,
'Do this, and you will live.'

TCR 267, 270 - the Lord is the Word and provides salvation

TCR 267, 270
There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth there is a church which possesses the Word,
and so the Lord is known because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and without Him salvation is impossible.
Conjunction with the Lord is established by means of the Word,
and so is association with angels.
It is enough if there is a church which possesses the Word,
even though it is composed of relatively few people,
The Lord is still present by its means throughout the world,
for the Word effects conjunction between heaven and the human race.

. . .when the Word was more or less rejected by the Roman Catholics,
by the Lord's Divine providence the Reformation took place,
and so the Word was, so to speak,
dragged out of its hiding place and put to use.
Also, when the Word possessed by the Jewish nation
was utterly falsified and adulterated, so that it became practically null,
then it pleased the Lord to come down from heaven,
to come as the Word and fulfil it, thus renewing and restoring it,
and to give light again to the inhabitants of the earth,
as these words of the Lord relate:

The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light;
for those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
upon them a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:1 and Matthew 4:16

TCR 263 - the Lord fulfilled & became

TCR 263
. . . each individual is his own will and his own understanding,
and this is what makes one person distinct from another.
Since the will is the organ for the reception of love,
and thus for all the kinds of good which make up his love,
and since the understanding is the organ for the reception of wisdom,
and thus for all the forms of truth which make up his wisdom,
it follows that each individual is his own love and his own wisdom,
or what is the same, his own good and his own truth.
This is the only thing that makes him a person
and being a person consists in nothing else.
As for the Lord, He is love itself and wisdom itself,
and so good itself and truth itself;
He became these by fulfilling every good and every truth in the Word.
For one who thinks and speaks nothing but truth becomes that truth;
and one who wills and does nothing but good becomes that good.
Since the Lord fulfilled all the Divine truth
and Divine good which are in the Word,
both in its natural as well as its spiritual sense,
He became good itself and truth itself, and so the Word.

TCR 249 - what makes a united life

TCR 249
Every person has two life-faculties, known as the understanding and the will.
The understanding receives truth and hence wisdom;
the will receives good and hence charity.
These two faculties must act as one
for a person to be a true member of the church;
and they do so,
so long as a person forms his understanding from genuine truths,
and this appears to be his own doing,
and so long as his will is filled by the good of love,
which is the Lord's doing.
Hence a person has a life of truth and a life of good,
the life of truth in the understanding, the life of good in the will.
So long as they are united, they make not two, but one life.
This is the marriage of the Lord and the church,
or the marriage of good and truth in the case of the individual.

TCR 245 - Are you living real or imaginary?

TCR 245
The Word is like a mine, the depths of which are rich in gold and silver;
or like a mine containing richer and richer veins of gems
the further one goes into it.
It is the understanding of the Word which opens up these mines.

[2] For those who probe the Word to extract from it the truths of faith
and the kinds of good which are needed for life,
the Word is like treasures owned by the Shah of Persia
or the Mogul or Chinese Emperors.
People belonging to the church are like their treasurers,
who have permission to take out as much as they want . . ..
On the other hand
those who merely possess the Word and read it,
without seeking for genuine truths to establish faith,
and genuine kinds of good to guide life,
are like those who know from the newspapers
that there are vast treasures there, but never get a penny from them.
Those who possess the Word without drawing from it
any understanding of genuine truth or any will for genuine good,
are like those people who think themselves wealthy
because they have taken huge loans from others . . ..
Anyone can see that this is imaginary.
They are also like people who walk about in magnificent costume,
ride in gilded carriages . . . yet do not actually own any of these things.

TCR 231 - enlightenment; TCR 238 - the Word is like a treasure-chest

TCR 231
Enlightenment comes only from the Lord,
and to those who love truths because they are true,
and make them their guide to a useful life.

TCR 238
The Word in its literal sense is like a treasure-chest,
in which lie arranged in rows precious stones, pearls and diadems.
If a person regards the Word as holy and reads it as a useful guide to life,
the thoughts in his mind can be compared
to one who holds such a chest in his hand, and throws it heavenwards;
and as it rises it flies open and the treasures inside reach the angels,
who take great pleasure in seeing and carefully examining them.
The pleasure they get from this is shared with people
and brings about association and also the sharing of perceptions.
It was for the sake of this association with angels,
and at the same time being conjoined with the Lord,
that the Holy Supper was instituted;
in this the bread becomes in heaven Divine good
and the wine becomes Divine truth,
in both cases coming from the Lord.
This kind of correspondence is from creation,
and was established in order
that the heaven of the angels and the church on earth,
and in general the spiritual world and the natural one, should be one,
and so that the Lord might conjoin Himself with both at once.

TCR 221 - the tabernacle, the temple - inside & out

TCR 221
. . . the Temple represented the heaven of the spiritual angels,
the Tabernacle that of the celestial angels.
Spiritual angels are those who possess wisdom from the Word,
celestial angels are those who possess love from the Word.
The Lord Himself teaches us in John that the Temple at Jerusalem
means in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human:

Break up this Temple, and in three days I will raise it again.
John 2:19, 21.

He was speaking about the temple of His body.

When the Lord is meant, so too is the Word, for He is the Word.
Now since the interior parts of the Temple
represented the interiors of heaven and the church,
and so those of the Word,
therefore its external parts also represented and stood for
the exteriors of heaven and the church,
and so those of the Word, that is, its literal sense.
We read of the exterior of the Temple
that it was built of whole, undressed stones, and inside of cedar-wood;
all its walls were carved inside with cherubim, palms and open flowers,
and the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 29, 30).
All these things too stand for the externals of the Word,
which are the holy things in its literal sense.

TCR 216 - the celestial, spiritual & natural senses of the Word

TCR 216
At its very heart
the celestial sense of the Word makes it like a gentle flame setting on fire;
at the intermediate level
its spiritual sense makes it like a light giving illumination.
Consequently at its outermost level
its natural sense makes it like a diaphanous object
which the flame turns red as purple, and the light turns white as snow.
It resembles either a ruby or a diamond,
the celestial flame making it like a ruby,
the spiritual light like a diamond.
Since the Word is like this in its literal sense, this is what is meant by:

• (i) The precious stones forming the foundations of the New Jerusalem.
• (ii) The Urim and Thummim on Aaron's ephod.
• (iii) The precious stones in the garden of Eden, in which the King of Tyre is said to have been.
• (iv) The curtains, veils and posts of the Tabernacle.
• (v) Likewise, the external features of the Temple at Jerusalem.
• (vi) The Word in its glory was represented in the Lord at His transfiguration.
• (vii) The power of the Word at its outermost level was represented by the Nazirites.
• (viii) The Word's power is beyond description.

TCR 209 - communication

TCR 209
. . . there can be no communication with heaven by means of the Word
for those who have false notions about doctrine;
their reading falls apart on the way up and vanishes . . ..
The opposite is the case with those who have true ideas about doctrine,
learned from the Lord by means of the Word;
when they read the Word it reaches all the way to heaven
and make a connection with angels there.
The angels themselves,
when they come down from heaven to perform a duty below,
appear to be surrounded by small stars,
especially round their head;
this is a sign that they posses Divine truths from the Word.

TCR 200 - What do they mean?

TCR 200 [2-3]
Anyone who knows nothing of the spiritual sense of the Word
. . . is unaware that
garden, grove and wood
mean wisdom, intelligence and knowledge,
or that olive, vine, cedar, poplar and oak
mean the good and truth of the church
in their celestial, spiritual, rational, natural and sensual forms.
Nor does he know that lamb, sheep, goat, calf and ox
mean innocence, charity and natural affection;
or that mountains, hills and valleys
mean the highest, lower and lowest elements in the church.
Nor does he know that
Egypt means factual knowledge,
Assyria the faculty of reason,
Edom the natural level,
Moab the adulteration of good,
the Children of Ammon the adulteration of truth,
the Philistines faith without charity,
Tyre and Sidon the knowledge of good and of truth,
Gog external worship without any internal.
In general, Jacob in the Word means the natural church,
Israel the spiritual church,
Judah the celestial church.
When one knows all these meanings,
it is possible to reflect that the Word speaks only of heavenly matters,
and those worldly matters are merely the underlying supports for the others.

TCR 191 - the style of the Word and our intentions in reading It

TCR 191
But the natural person still cannot be convinced by quotations
that the Word is Divine truth itself,
containing Divine wisdom and Divine life,
because he looks at it from the point of view of its style,
and in this he cannot see these things.
However, the style of the Word is the actual style of God,
beyond comparisons with any other style,
however high-flown and magnificent.
Such is the style of the Word
that there is holiness in every sentence, every word,
in some places even every letter.
Thus the Word forms a conjunction between a person and the Lord,
and opens the way to heaven . . .
But it ought properly to be known
that the only people to have life from the Word
are those who read it
with the intention of drawing Divine truths from it,
like water from the spring,
and at the same time with the intention
of putting the Divine truths drawn from it into practice in their lives.
The reverse happens to those whose only intention in reading the Word
is to win honors and gain worldly advantages.

TCR 188 - What is the Holy Spirit?

TCR 188 [9]
. . . the Holy Spirit is not a person by Himself,
so not God by Himself either,
but the Holy Divine which goes forth and proceeds
from the one omnipresent God, who is the Lord.
. . . Nowhere in the Old Testament
do we read that the prophets spoke the Word from the Holy Spirit,
but from Jehovah;
and where the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the New Testament,
the Divine which proceeds is meant.
This is the Divine which enlightens, teaches,
quickens, reforms and regenerates.

[11] . . . the Holy Spirit means
the Lord's Divine activity from His Divine omnipresence . . .

TCR 174, 176 - a history lesson; TCR 184 - a Pearl

TCR 174, 176
The Apostolic church means not only the church which existed in various places in the time of the Apostles, but also in the following two or three centuries. But eventually they began to tear the door of the temple off its hinges, and like thieves to break into its sanctuary. The temple means the church, its door the Lord God the Redeemer, and the sanctuary His Divinity. For Jesus says:

Truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door,
but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber.
I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
[John 10:1, 9]

[2] This crime was committed by Arius and his followers. Consequently a Council was summoned by Constantine the Great to meet at Nicaea, a city of Bithynia; and its members, in order to expel the damaging heresy of Arius, invented, concluded and laid down the doctrine that the three Divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed from eternity, each of whom had a personality, and came into and continued in existence by Himself and in Himself. They also held that the second person, the Son, came down and took upon Himself human form and carried out the redemption, and by this means His Human has divinity by hypostatic union, so that by this union He has close kinship with God the Father. This was the beginning from which there spread over the earth heaps of unspeakable heresies about God and the person of Christ. Antichrist then began to rear his head, and split God into three, and the Lord the Saviour into two, thus destroying the Temple the Lord had built by means of His Apostles; this went so far that every stone was pried loose, until not one was left upon another, as predicted by His words (Matt. 24:2). Here 'Temple' does not mean just the Temple in Jerusalem, but also the church; and the whole of that chapter deals with its consummation or end.

176 [2] It is said in heaven that when the Council of Nicaea finished its work, there took place simultaneously the things the Lord foretold to the disciples:

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
[Matt. 24:29]


TCR 184
. . . the Divine Trinity is like a pearl* of great price;
but divided into persons it is like a pearl cut into three,
which is obviously completely ruined.

* The Latin word for 'pearl' is here unio, which also means 'union'.

TCR 163 - a touchstone

TCR 163
. . . the idea everyone has of God determines his place in the heavens.
It is like the touchstone used to test gold and silver,
that is to say, it tests the nature of the good and truth a person has.
For he cannot have any good which leads to salvation except from God,
nor any truth which does not get its quality from the good deep within it.

(i) There is a Divine Trinity consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(ii) Those three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
are the three essentials of a single God,
which make one as soul, body and activity do with a person.

(iii) This Trinity did not exist before the creation of the world,
but it was provided and made after the creation of the world,
when God became incarnate,
and then it was in the Lord God, the Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

TCR 162 - the Word

TCR 162 [6,8]
So they went and entered a room,
the walls of which shone as if made of gold,
and there too they saw a table on which was laid a copy of the Word,
surrounded by precious stones in a heavenly pattern.
The custodian angel said:
'When the Word is opened,
a light shines out from it of indescribable brightness,
and at the same time the precious stones
give a rainbow effect above and around the Word.
When an angel from the third heaven comes near,
the rainbow appears above and around the Word on a red background;
when an angel comes from the second heaven and looks at it,
the rainbow appears on a blue background;
when an angel from the lowest heaven comes and looks,
the rainbow appears on a white background.
When a good spirit comes and looks,
there is a variegated effect of light like marble.'
They were given a visual demonstration of these effects.
The custodian went on to say:
'If anyone approaches who has falsified the Word,
first of all the radiance disappears;
and if he comes close and fixes his gaze on the Word,
the surroundings change to the color of blood.
Then he is warned to go away, as it is dangerous.'

. . . falsifying the Word consists in taking truths from it
and using them to prove untrue propositions;
this is done by taking truths from the Word out of context
and murdering them.

[This section is repeated with minor changes from AR 566.
See also the post on 11/18/09.]

TCR 154 - acting and speaking

TCR 154
. . . everyone freely acts and speaks from the Lord
when he does so from the Word.

TCR 151 - What is believing in the Lord?

TCR 151
Believing in the Lord
is not just a matter of acknowledging Him,
but includes keeping His commandments.
Merely to acknowledge Him
only demands some thought on the part of the understanding,
but to keep His commandments
requires acknowledgment on the part of the will, too.
The human mind is made up of the understanding and the will.
It is the function of the understanding to think,
of the will to act.
So as long as a person's acknowledgment
is merely in thought on the part of the understanding,
he approaches the Lord with no more than half his mind;
but when he acts,
then he does so with his whole mind,
and that is what believing is.

TCR 140 - the Holy Spirit

TCR 140
Now because the Holy Spirit means the Divine truth,
and this was in the Lord Himself and was the Lord Himself (John 14:6),
and so because the Holy Spirit could not proceed from any other source,
it is said:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:39

and after His glorification:

He breathed on His disciples and said,
Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:22

The reason why the Lord breathed on the disciples and said this
was that breathing on was the external sign standing for inspiration by God;
and inspiration means being brought into contact with communities of angels.