A New Word
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Psalm 68: 11 John 14: 15-18, 25,26
Last Judgement 12 § 3; Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 25
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Psalm 68: 11 John 14: 15-18, 25,26
Last Judgement 12 § 3; Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 25
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time comes, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. (John 16: 25)
In what way is the Lord present with mankind? We know that He is not present as a person as He was when He came on earth and was born among man as the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He walked and talked with the disciples and with others. Neither is He present as He was with the Most Ancient Church (Adam and Eve) - immediately or directly from within through an internal way, through one's soul. How, then, is the Lord present with mankind? Well, of course, you could say He is present with us spiritually and celestially, for we are spiritual as well as being natural, but unless we are aware spiritually and celestially we will not experience His presence at all. We live in the natural state of life or in ultimates. There, it is where the Lord must somehow be conjoined with man if mankind is to have His presence acknowledged. There is where we live 'as it were'.
It is said, 'as it were' because in ultimates there is only an appearance of truths, and there is where life is expressed - in ultimates - but that in not life itself, it being but appearances of true life. Then, what is life if what is manifested is only the spiritual effects, which are shown or revealed as an appearance of life in natural manifestations or in ultimates? To answer that, we need to know the essence - the quality - of God. That, of course, is the whole purpose of the creation of man, which is to know God, to be like the Lord, to become made into an image of Him and to fully share His life and, so, to receive the delights of His love. And, the qualities that are the Lord's are: love, wisdom, and their use, or said in another way, good, truth, and works. You can see that the Lord is with man in the quality of the life that he has from Him. If there is lacking such qualities, the Lord is not present, instead of love there is evil present.
Now the question is what is the quality of life that we - mankind - have today? In other words, is the Lord manifested in and through us, that is, are the qualities of love and good, wisdom (that is intelligence) or truth and from these, works or uses or charity manifested as a results? If they are then the Lord is with us and in us. And, if they are lacking, then is it not true that we lack the Lord's presence? Let us analyze this further. The two qualities of love or good, which is charity with man and intelligence or truth, which becomes faith with man, when they are within us from the Lord cause us to act in charity towards one another and, as such, we return the Lord's love; we fulfill the Lord's commandment to love one another and to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That presence of good and truth gives us a new life. The lack of it brings death to us. As we know, the wages of sin is death. Now, since God is Divine, that is, He is Good and Truth and these flow or proceed from Him to us and to all creation. And since man is no longer with God as he is meant to be, and 'as it were' in the garden of paradise, which actually is within one's mind, that is, in one's will and understanding (that is the spiritual significance of a garden), then the Lord is not with us. By the way, what kind of garden do you have within your mind - one where goods and truths live and flourish or one where evils and falsities dwell? If man is 'as if' alone and without the Lord, his life is as dead. From a cursory study of Genesis one understands mankind has turned away from Life to death. You can see we are speaking here about sin and when sin entered man and when evil and falsity then entered, that is, hell and the result was that death entered into man.
Now, mankind, since his fall, ends up rejecting any good and truth that comes from God and, thus, as such has separated himself from the Lord. Still the Lord loves us and did not leave us hopeless and helpless without a 'helper' and condemned, but eventually and in the fullness of time He came to earth and redeemed us.
Nonetheless, even before His coming on earth, the Lord God came, helped man, and gave him comfort. How, you may wonder? He came to him in the way of the written Word. And the Word of God, we should believe, is the Truth, which teaches a life of goodness and goodness comes only from the Lord. Of course, this was first seen evidenced today in the Word written by Moses, where he tells of the Lord Himself written on two tablets of stone - the Ten Commandments. Even in a closer examination of what Moses wrote we can see that there were written earlier books - God's Word - that was the Word of an Ancient people who before had worshipped Jehovah as the one God of Heaven and earth.
However, that Word and the Word that came after - the Old Testament - though they teach truths for man to live by, mankind still turned even further away from believing and following, making the truth of no effect. They even came to reject the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He came on earth to establish a new Church with man, which was to become the true Christian Church. As a result of His coming, man once again was inspired, as were the prophets before, and a New Testament was come on earth. And, as said, a new Church with man - the Christian - was established and came once again to lift man up out of the depths to which he had fallen. That New Testament became the guide by which Christ's followers patterned their life. At first, the simple, naked truth shined out of that Word - the words spoken by Christ - as they put the truths into practice and a new commandment was given - to love one another was taught by the Lord.
That Word reveals that the development of the new Church at that time - the Primitive and Apostolic Churches of the Christian Church era - would come into a time in which there would be a falling away again from the Church. A time when faith would become spurious and charity was lacking - a faith without charity. This Church, too, would come to an end as all prior Churches had. All one has to do is to read Revelations and he will see this is so, where he sees another new Church - the Lord's New Church which is called the New Jerusalem - would come on earth, which would become the crown of all Churches. We see that the Lord promised a new Spirit of Truth to come and had said to his disciples 'I will not leave you comfortless'. In fact every previous Church has been seen internally - as a step closer to this Church as it is or should be internally. In a time when the Lord Jesus Christ was going to be no longer with the Church on earth as a man as we and all hope seemed to be lost. We learn that the Holy Spirit would come to those faithful Christians at a time when they could understand and learn internal truths and spiritual truths. You may remember that the Lord spoke not a word except in proverbs or parables to the Jewish Church. Though, on occasion when asked He would explain to His disciples the meaning of what He had spoke, explaining to those who sincerely wished to know the deeper sense of His new Revelation. And, He will go on always doing that, so that the genuine members of the Church will more and more clearly know how they ought to live. The Lord enlightens man's understanding, where and whenever it is feasible, but man must as of himself live according to that new understanding.
The disciples were concerned and worried what would happen to them when the Lord was gone. In an internal sense, it is the Church that is meant here. The Lord was its founder and leader. Who was going to lead them when He was no longer with them? Who was going to lead the Church He had come to establish and to save now that He was no longer going to be with them? Here was His explanation to them: "I go to prepare a place for you" and then He said He would come for them again so that they would be with Him. And He also said, "I will not leave you helpless." Then He spent quite some time explaining that: one, He would come again to bring them unto Himself, and two, He would send a comforter, a helper, who was the Spirit of Truth and who would lead them to all truths. We learn that what the Spirit of Truth would say would only be what He hears from Him, that is, the Lord and that He would not speak of Himself. If nothing else, you can see that the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, is not another person sent by God who expresses Himself independent from the Lord Jesus Christ and from the Divine that is within and is called the Father. One can see that He was one with the Lord and with the Father and that they would be with Him when He returned. The question is how is the Lord to return to man and especially to the Church?
We know that Jehovah had inspired certain men to write the Word and we can read that this, in the Old Testament, was called the Spirit of God or Jehovah. We know, also, that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He was the Word and that others were inspired to write the Word of the New Testament.
Now, what is it that proceeds from Jehovah? Isn't it the Truth and the Good that we earlier spoke of? Now that the Lord has glorified His Human what is it that flows or proceeds from Him? It is the Word that contains truths and that instructs, although there is now a difference between the Word that proceeded before He had become the Divine Human and after. The earlier is the same Truth, but it is without power to save. That is why the Lord had to come upon earth; He had to put on the human of man and overcome the evils that reigned over man. This He did. So, you see that, the truth that now comes to man from the Lord's Divine Human has the power to defeat those evils that presently dwell with man. The Word that was revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg has within it the means and the power to save. The Word before this new Word did not. And, of course, you man learn about the souls that were held captive under God's thrown which were released when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Human, came and set them free at His Coming to the Spiritual world where the subjugation of the evil took place. Thus, He redeems man. However, without accepting that Word and acting or living according to the understanding of it the written Word is powerless; with a man it is like faith without charity. Now, you can see why the Word - the helper or comforter, the Spirit of Truth who is the Holy Spirit - was to comfort the disciples (and us) when the Lord was gone from them, for He was them united completely with the Divine and became one with mankind. The Spirit of the Divine Human now flows or proceeds in all power and strength to save who turn again to be led by Him.
Now, naturally, if you see the Lord as one person and the Holy Spirit as another and think that there is a third, the Divine, who is the Father, then you will be waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to return again to earth. And, you would see the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, as someone different from Him. Yet, we read today that the Lord and His Father are one and that the Comforter, which was sent is also one with them even as the qualities that flow to man, lead and teach, are one. And, like the Spirit of Jehovah which revealed the Word of Truth to Moses and to others - Prophets - and even like some of the disciples, the Spirit of Truth had inspired a certain man - Emanuel Swedenborg - to write down the truths revealed to him. So, today, we have another Word, the Word of the Divine Human, sometimes called the Third Testament or the Latin Word. There is the Word of Jehovah - the Old Testament - the Word of Jesus Christ - the New Testament - and there is the Word of the Divine Human - the Latin Word or Third Testament.
We read also in the Gospel of John concerning the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit that He would teach the Church all things and bring them into remembrance, that is, to the mind. That, of course, was sent in His name by the Father, which is meant by the Divine. Divine, of course, is Love and Wisdom united. Later, He said the Spirit of Truth would testify of Him. Finally, the Lord tells His Church, which was at that time basically embodied in the disciples, that unless He goes away the comforter or the Helper, as He sometimes is called, will not come. And, that when He does come, He will reprove the World of sin, of righteousness, and of Justice. All this, the Lord tells His Church, plus that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth will live with those in the Church on earth and will be within the man of the Church. It becomes apparent that it is the Lord coming in all His qualities of love and wisdom to man and in power. The Lord's presence with man is, then, truly within the understanding and will and brings all things, that is, all truths and goods into remembrance, into the mind of man.
What are the things that are to come and that are taught to the man of the Church? Spiritually it is the truth and the good, but isn't it also Heaven that awaits the man of the Church? Isn't it the Lord who is taught to the Church? Therefore, the truths that are to be revealed to man concerns Heaven and man's life with the Lord either as an angel or as his life without the Lord and as a man who loves himself. We read that the Lord had gone away to prepare a place for them, the Church, that they might be with Him. Now, again, what is it that proceeds from the Divine Human? Isn't it His qualities - Love and Wisdom or His Goodness and Truthfulness, which with man is charity and faith? This, of course, is to be within man in his will and understanding, and is the Church with him. However, we have already explained that because of man's present state he is unable to perceive these spiritual truths from within, having removed himself from the presence of God, although a man may accept these qualities which still come to him, but from without - through the natural senses. Thus, we see that over the centuries God had provided that His Word, which tells of His love and wisdom and of how we are to live from His life, and that they enter man through his senses by way of the written Word, to include the Latin Word.
One can understand that in order for mankind to return again to a state where the Lord is present and lives within him and he is in freedom, the Word of Truth must be opened to his natural understanding. In other words, the Old and the New Testaments, while they are the truth cannot be understood in their spiritual sense unless the internal sense is understood. All what we understand in the natural sense are only in apparent truths and are not genuine truths. This leads man into fallacies and eventually falsities, that is, to false doctrine. One, of which, is the doctrine of a trinity of gods in three persons.
It can be seen from this that mankind would continue in his falsity unless a new Word would be revealed to him showing the internal sense of the Word. Now, you might think, how is this possible, since we have indicated that man cannot perceive the Lord or truths from within, but what He teaches now comes only through man's natural senses? We have a natural example of how this may be explained. It is this; if one knows what is signified spiritually by natural things, then would he not then know the spiritual or internal sense? How would you explain something that you saw or heard from God or from angels? For example: how would you explain God? You could begin with His qualities saying He is Love, but what is love and what is wisdom in the natural if all that you have received is from within? They are spiritual and celestial things. What do you have to compare it with that would cause someone to know that what you are talking about? Naturally, all that you have are the things of nature - the trees, all plant life, the animals, and the material world itself.
Why has Jehovah God asked Adam - the first Church on earth - to name all the animals in the Garden of Eden? For that matter, what does naming mean? It is that all these natural things signify things in Heaven and, so, there is a correspondence between them. They signify the qualities of Heavenly things, things that when the internal sense in known they reveal the Lord Himself to man and that Life proceeds from Him to us. The point is that knowing through perception that what is signified by natural things was the Lord's Word to that first Church on earth. It was no written Word at that time. It came later. So, you can understand that unless one can understand the Heavenly or Spiritual significance of natural things, they would not be able to know genuine truths, nor could they be led to a good life. What we are speaking of here is a man's regeneration. This, the Lord revealed to them from within. Today, revelation comes from without, through the means of the natural senses.
Now let us turn to learn how the Lord can reveal these internal truths to man through the natural and literal understanding, since man, today, cannot perceive them from the Lord within; his spirit having been closed off by sin to him. The Lord could reveal a new Word through another man, and He did - Emanuel Swedenborg. This new Word reveals these correspondences between Heaven and earth that the Most Ancient Church - Adam and Eve - was taught from within, through perception, even as He has revealed the written Word through different men from which we have both the Old and the New Testaments. A written Word revealing these correspondences would open to man hidden arcanum - hidden mysteries - that today lie within the Word, but which, when understood and used properly can teach and lead man in his living a new life from the Lord and not from self.
Such a Word has been written. It is the Word of the Divine Human, who is the Lord Himself and who has come on earth again in truth and good in this new Word bring a way by which man can come to a new life. Today, man can receive a new understanding and a new will - one that is not profaned by his love of self. A man's understanding can lead and his will can rule from the Lord, and not from self. It can reign over his old self when he follows the truths that are taught through this new Word. He will begin to see spiritually then what is there, within the literal sense, for the spiritual lies within the natural. If he follows and obeys or does the truths taught, he will have the Lord's presence, not only in the written Word, but also within his very life; he is, then, one with the Lord and lives in the goodness of life. He is then being regenerated and is saved.
This new Word had come on earth and through it a new Church is now being formed from those who receive it into their minds and hearts. These people have opened to them the things that could not be revealed to the disciples. The Lord had said to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16: 12,13).
Amen.
It is said, 'as it were' because in ultimates there is only an appearance of truths, and there is where life is expressed - in ultimates - but that in not life itself, it being but appearances of true life. Then, what is life if what is manifested is only the spiritual effects, which are shown or revealed as an appearance of life in natural manifestations or in ultimates? To answer that, we need to know the essence - the quality - of God. That, of course, is the whole purpose of the creation of man, which is to know God, to be like the Lord, to become made into an image of Him and to fully share His life and, so, to receive the delights of His love. And, the qualities that are the Lord's are: love, wisdom, and their use, or said in another way, good, truth, and works. You can see that the Lord is with man in the quality of the life that he has from Him. If there is lacking such qualities, the Lord is not present, instead of love there is evil present.
Now the question is what is the quality of life that we - mankind - have today? In other words, is the Lord manifested in and through us, that is, are the qualities of love and good, wisdom (that is intelligence) or truth and from these, works or uses or charity manifested as a results? If they are then the Lord is with us and in us. And, if they are lacking, then is it not true that we lack the Lord's presence? Let us analyze this further. The two qualities of love or good, which is charity with man and intelligence or truth, which becomes faith with man, when they are within us from the Lord cause us to act in charity towards one another and, as such, we return the Lord's love; we fulfill the Lord's commandment to love one another and to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That presence of good and truth gives us a new life. The lack of it brings death to us. As we know, the wages of sin is death. Now, since God is Divine, that is, He is Good and Truth and these flow or proceed from Him to us and to all creation. And since man is no longer with God as he is meant to be, and 'as it were' in the garden of paradise, which actually is within one's mind, that is, in one's will and understanding (that is the spiritual significance of a garden), then the Lord is not with us. By the way, what kind of garden do you have within your mind - one where goods and truths live and flourish or one where evils and falsities dwell? If man is 'as if' alone and without the Lord, his life is as dead. From a cursory study of Genesis one understands mankind has turned away from Life to death. You can see we are speaking here about sin and when sin entered man and when evil and falsity then entered, that is, hell and the result was that death entered into man.
Now, mankind, since his fall, ends up rejecting any good and truth that comes from God and, thus, as such has separated himself from the Lord. Still the Lord loves us and did not leave us hopeless and helpless without a 'helper' and condemned, but eventually and in the fullness of time He came to earth and redeemed us.
Nonetheless, even before His coming on earth, the Lord God came, helped man, and gave him comfort. How, you may wonder? He came to him in the way of the written Word. And the Word of God, we should believe, is the Truth, which teaches a life of goodness and goodness comes only from the Lord. Of course, this was first seen evidenced today in the Word written by Moses, where he tells of the Lord Himself written on two tablets of stone - the Ten Commandments. Even in a closer examination of what Moses wrote we can see that there were written earlier books - God's Word - that was the Word of an Ancient people who before had worshipped Jehovah as the one God of Heaven and earth.
However, that Word and the Word that came after - the Old Testament - though they teach truths for man to live by, mankind still turned even further away from believing and following, making the truth of no effect. They even came to reject the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He came on earth to establish a new Church with man, which was to become the true Christian Church. As a result of His coming, man once again was inspired, as were the prophets before, and a New Testament was come on earth. And, as said, a new Church with man - the Christian - was established and came once again to lift man up out of the depths to which he had fallen. That New Testament became the guide by which Christ's followers patterned their life. At first, the simple, naked truth shined out of that Word - the words spoken by Christ - as they put the truths into practice and a new commandment was given - to love one another was taught by the Lord.
That Word reveals that the development of the new Church at that time - the Primitive and Apostolic Churches of the Christian Church era - would come into a time in which there would be a falling away again from the Church. A time when faith would become spurious and charity was lacking - a faith without charity. This Church, too, would come to an end as all prior Churches had. All one has to do is to read Revelations and he will see this is so, where he sees another new Church - the Lord's New Church which is called the New Jerusalem - would come on earth, which would become the crown of all Churches. We see that the Lord promised a new Spirit of Truth to come and had said to his disciples 'I will not leave you comfortless'. In fact every previous Church has been seen internally - as a step closer to this Church as it is or should be internally. In a time when the Lord Jesus Christ was going to be no longer with the Church on earth as a man as we and all hope seemed to be lost. We learn that the Holy Spirit would come to those faithful Christians at a time when they could understand and learn internal truths and spiritual truths. You may remember that the Lord spoke not a word except in proverbs or parables to the Jewish Church. Though, on occasion when asked He would explain to His disciples the meaning of what He had spoke, explaining to those who sincerely wished to know the deeper sense of His new Revelation. And, He will go on always doing that, so that the genuine members of the Church will more and more clearly know how they ought to live. The Lord enlightens man's understanding, where and whenever it is feasible, but man must as of himself live according to that new understanding.
The disciples were concerned and worried what would happen to them when the Lord was gone. In an internal sense, it is the Church that is meant here. The Lord was its founder and leader. Who was going to lead them when He was no longer with them? Who was going to lead the Church He had come to establish and to save now that He was no longer going to be with them? Here was His explanation to them: "I go to prepare a place for you" and then He said He would come for them again so that they would be with Him. And He also said, "I will not leave you helpless." Then He spent quite some time explaining that: one, He would come again to bring them unto Himself, and two, He would send a comforter, a helper, who was the Spirit of Truth and who would lead them to all truths. We learn that what the Spirit of Truth would say would only be what He hears from Him, that is, the Lord and that He would not speak of Himself. If nothing else, you can see that the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, is not another person sent by God who expresses Himself independent from the Lord Jesus Christ and from the Divine that is within and is called the Father. One can see that He was one with the Lord and with the Father and that they would be with Him when He returned. The question is how is the Lord to return to man and especially to the Church?
We know that Jehovah had inspired certain men to write the Word and we can read that this, in the Old Testament, was called the Spirit of God or Jehovah. We know, also, that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He was the Word and that others were inspired to write the Word of the New Testament.
Now, what is it that proceeds from Jehovah? Isn't it the Truth and the Good that we earlier spoke of? Now that the Lord has glorified His Human what is it that flows or proceeds from Him? It is the Word that contains truths and that instructs, although there is now a difference between the Word that proceeded before He had become the Divine Human and after. The earlier is the same Truth, but it is without power to save. That is why the Lord had to come upon earth; He had to put on the human of man and overcome the evils that reigned over man. This He did. So, you see that, the truth that now comes to man from the Lord's Divine Human has the power to defeat those evils that presently dwell with man. The Word that was revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg has within it the means and the power to save. The Word before this new Word did not. And, of course, you man learn about the souls that were held captive under God's thrown which were released when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Human, came and set them free at His Coming to the Spiritual world where the subjugation of the evil took place. Thus, He redeems man. However, without accepting that Word and acting or living according to the understanding of it the written Word is powerless; with a man it is like faith without charity. Now, you can see why the Word - the helper or comforter, the Spirit of Truth who is the Holy Spirit - was to comfort the disciples (and us) when the Lord was gone from them, for He was them united completely with the Divine and became one with mankind. The Spirit of the Divine Human now flows or proceeds in all power and strength to save who turn again to be led by Him.
Now, naturally, if you see the Lord as one person and the Holy Spirit as another and think that there is a third, the Divine, who is the Father, then you will be waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to return again to earth. And, you would see the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, as someone different from Him. Yet, we read today that the Lord and His Father are one and that the Comforter, which was sent is also one with them even as the qualities that flow to man, lead and teach, are one. And, like the Spirit of Jehovah which revealed the Word of Truth to Moses and to others - Prophets - and even like some of the disciples, the Spirit of Truth had inspired a certain man - Emanuel Swedenborg - to write down the truths revealed to him. So, today, we have another Word, the Word of the Divine Human, sometimes called the Third Testament or the Latin Word. There is the Word of Jehovah - the Old Testament - the Word of Jesus Christ - the New Testament - and there is the Word of the Divine Human - the Latin Word or Third Testament.
We read also in the Gospel of John concerning the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit that He would teach the Church all things and bring them into remembrance, that is, to the mind. That, of course, was sent in His name by the Father, which is meant by the Divine. Divine, of course, is Love and Wisdom united. Later, He said the Spirit of Truth would testify of Him. Finally, the Lord tells His Church, which was at that time basically embodied in the disciples, that unless He goes away the comforter or the Helper, as He sometimes is called, will not come. And, that when He does come, He will reprove the World of sin, of righteousness, and of Justice. All this, the Lord tells His Church, plus that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth will live with those in the Church on earth and will be within the man of the Church. It becomes apparent that it is the Lord coming in all His qualities of love and wisdom to man and in power. The Lord's presence with man is, then, truly within the understanding and will and brings all things, that is, all truths and goods into remembrance, into the mind of man.
What are the things that are to come and that are taught to the man of the Church? Spiritually it is the truth and the good, but isn't it also Heaven that awaits the man of the Church? Isn't it the Lord who is taught to the Church? Therefore, the truths that are to be revealed to man concerns Heaven and man's life with the Lord either as an angel or as his life without the Lord and as a man who loves himself. We read that the Lord had gone away to prepare a place for them, the Church, that they might be with Him. Now, again, what is it that proceeds from the Divine Human? Isn't it His qualities - Love and Wisdom or His Goodness and Truthfulness, which with man is charity and faith? This, of course, is to be within man in his will and understanding, and is the Church with him. However, we have already explained that because of man's present state he is unable to perceive these spiritual truths from within, having removed himself from the presence of God, although a man may accept these qualities which still come to him, but from without - through the natural senses. Thus, we see that over the centuries God had provided that His Word, which tells of His love and wisdom and of how we are to live from His life, and that they enter man through his senses by way of the written Word, to include the Latin Word.
One can understand that in order for mankind to return again to a state where the Lord is present and lives within him and he is in freedom, the Word of Truth must be opened to his natural understanding. In other words, the Old and the New Testaments, while they are the truth cannot be understood in their spiritual sense unless the internal sense is understood. All what we understand in the natural sense are only in apparent truths and are not genuine truths. This leads man into fallacies and eventually falsities, that is, to false doctrine. One, of which, is the doctrine of a trinity of gods in three persons.
It can be seen from this that mankind would continue in his falsity unless a new Word would be revealed to him showing the internal sense of the Word. Now, you might think, how is this possible, since we have indicated that man cannot perceive the Lord or truths from within, but what He teaches now comes only through man's natural senses? We have a natural example of how this may be explained. It is this; if one knows what is signified spiritually by natural things, then would he not then know the spiritual or internal sense? How would you explain something that you saw or heard from God or from angels? For example: how would you explain God? You could begin with His qualities saying He is Love, but what is love and what is wisdom in the natural if all that you have received is from within? They are spiritual and celestial things. What do you have to compare it with that would cause someone to know that what you are talking about? Naturally, all that you have are the things of nature - the trees, all plant life, the animals, and the material world itself.
Why has Jehovah God asked Adam - the first Church on earth - to name all the animals in the Garden of Eden? For that matter, what does naming mean? It is that all these natural things signify things in Heaven and, so, there is a correspondence between them. They signify the qualities of Heavenly things, things that when the internal sense in known they reveal the Lord Himself to man and that Life proceeds from Him to us. The point is that knowing through perception that what is signified by natural things was the Lord's Word to that first Church on earth. It was no written Word at that time. It came later. So, you can understand that unless one can understand the Heavenly or Spiritual significance of natural things, they would not be able to know genuine truths, nor could they be led to a good life. What we are speaking of here is a man's regeneration. This, the Lord revealed to them from within. Today, revelation comes from without, through the means of the natural senses.
Now let us turn to learn how the Lord can reveal these internal truths to man through the natural and literal understanding, since man, today, cannot perceive them from the Lord within; his spirit having been closed off by sin to him. The Lord could reveal a new Word through another man, and He did - Emanuel Swedenborg. This new Word reveals these correspondences between Heaven and earth that the Most Ancient Church - Adam and Eve - was taught from within, through perception, even as He has revealed the written Word through different men from which we have both the Old and the New Testaments. A written Word revealing these correspondences would open to man hidden arcanum - hidden mysteries - that today lie within the Word, but which, when understood and used properly can teach and lead man in his living a new life from the Lord and not from self.
Such a Word has been written. It is the Word of the Divine Human, who is the Lord Himself and who has come on earth again in truth and good in this new Word bring a way by which man can come to a new life. Today, man can receive a new understanding and a new will - one that is not profaned by his love of self. A man's understanding can lead and his will can rule from the Lord, and not from self. It can reign over his old self when he follows the truths that are taught through this new Word. He will begin to see spiritually then what is there, within the literal sense, for the spiritual lies within the natural. If he follows and obeys or does the truths taught, he will have the Lord's presence, not only in the written Word, but also within his very life; he is, then, one with the Lord and lives in the goodness of life. He is then being regenerated and is saved.
This new Word had come on earth and through it a new Church is now being formed from those who receive it into their minds and hearts. These people have opened to them the things that could not be revealed to the disciples. The Lord had said to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16: 12,13).
Amen.
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