The Divine Word or Truth and Life Lived Accordingly - Part 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
By Rev. Paul Booth
This is the second in a series about the Lord's New Chapel's beliefs. It concerns the Divine Word or Truth and the life lived acknowledging the two essentials - good and truth - and brings to light a third essential of faith - use.
In the previous lecture, we dealt with the Holy Spirit and said that the creation was from the Divine Good and Truth and that this was understood as the Spirit of God or Jehovah as can be seen evidenced in the Old Testament. What needs, here, to be known is that the Word, the Divine Truth, has always been with man. If one accepts this as being true, then he can understand that the Word of God is more than just a book called the Bible with books of the Old and New Testaments in it. It is more than a book explaining to man's natural understanding God's truth and His love. There is something more internal, something spiritual and celestial and even Divine and Sacred about the Word
Let us see what the Word was with the men of the first Church on earth. Remember, we called this Church, the Most Ancient Church. What was their Word? Can you guess? Of course, it was the presence of Jehovah God with them. Since God created the world and all things in it and then created man to enjoy and benefit from the things created - the trees, the birds, and animals - then, in all creation there is seen something of God, something of His love and wisdom in them. I know many who have expressed the beauty and the wonder of the creation. They have said things like, 'Who does not see God in all this?' Others, who study nature, the animals and plant life, have become utterly amazed at their findings and have expressed something like, 'Only God could have created all this wonder.' They agree that only God, who is Love and Wisdom could have created the world and sustains it.
So, as the man of that early Church looked at God's creation, he learned about God, and about his love for him. The internal or spiritual and celestial thoughts and ideas, the truths and goods, the proceeding love and wisdom of God was operating in man's in his will and in his understanding through perception, that is, from within. This was the Word with them. This still happens today, but now man lives in the natural state and is no longer is in the celestial state when he was in paradise, so he cannot perceive the Lord and His truth and good as they did. Today, when nature is seen, heard, felt, tasted and smelled, that is, when it is sensed by man, man may not learn the Lord's truths and form a doctrine with which he can grow and mature and come into a closer relationship with the Lord and Heaven, but he can learn truths and goods through the Word that the Lord gives man from without or through his senses, not through perception from within.
However, this way (through perception) of learning and knowing truth was destroyed with man. This is because of the man's love for him self and for worldly things; he began to falsify the truths that are insinuated into him from the Lord. You can imagine, then, the man's decline into evil. Now we have said God's Word had to be with man so that he may truly live. His Word brings life to man. How, then, was life to remain with man since this way was now destroyed? How could man's life not be profaned by man who now loved himself and the world, and who had rejected the Lord's love? Between the Most Ancient Church and the Israelitish Church or between Adam and Moses when the Old Testament was given, there was the Ancient Church. Now, we know there was an Ancient Church, because it is revealed in the Old Testament in Moses and in Jeremiah, that there had been an ancient Word. Their Word was called the "Wars of Jehovah" and "Enunciations". (See Numbers 21: 14, 15.) This Ancient Word recorded the histories of the Ancient Church much like the Old Testament is a record of the histories of the Israelites and the Jews. However, this Ancient Word was lost to mankind.
Why was the Ancient Word lost? Adam or the Most Ancient Church learned truths from nature through an internal way or sense (through perception), then, the Ancient Church recorded these truths, which were their Word. You can see that they were spiritual things, things about the Lord and His Kingdom and about paradise. These are represented in the Word as things of nature and are called correspondences. They were recorded down and, so, became their Word. When man had turned from God, he was lost. Yet, some of them believed the Lord would come and redeem man as He had promised. The truths of the Lord's love were recorded and became the doctrines of the Ancient Church. And so, the Lord was also present with them in the Word; it taught the correspondences between Heaven and the earth. This Church was a spiritual Church, for they learned spiritual truths.
Correspondences were just mentioned in the Word. In fact, the Word was written by correspondences. In this way an angel, who is spiritual or celestial, can have an understanding of the Word. They live according to their understanding of the Word just as a man should according to his own natural understanding. The truths with men are for their understanding and the truths with angels are for their understanding. The man of the Most Ancient Church, was in communication with Heaven, and had even talked with angels and the Lord. Yet they tried to hide themselves when the Lord called when they had disobeyed Him. Thus, they had destroyed the internal or celestial means of learning truth and correspondences were eventually lost and, thus, their perception. Thus, it was 'as if' the Bible had been lost to us and what we could remember was also soon lost. As time passed, man forgot the scientifics of correspondences. The Ancient Church declined into idolatry and sacrifices. Now, this all was necessary because man had begun using correspondences to enhance his own loves with knowledge over others who had lost this ability. Men began to rule over others with this knowledge of correspondences. You can learn about this in the Old Testament in the account of Moses and Aaron's coming to Pharaoh. The Pharaoh's magicians could perform similar miracles as could Aaron with the rod through God. Fortunately, this ability became destroyed with all mankind.
The Word of God was spoken to certain men of the Israelites. The Israelites were external or natural men and were not like the man of the Most Ancient Church - celestial - or even like the Ancient Church man who was spiritual. The Most Ancient Church fell, but some came into the spiritual state (Noah's family) and was called the Ancient Church and these knew correspondences of spiritual things with natural things as has been mentioned. (Remember there was born to the Adamic Church another son, Seth, after Able was killed.) Next, the Israelitish Church and not have the ability to see these correspondences between natural and Heavenly things and the Word was understood purely in its natural sense. All their worship and sacrifices was representative of the Lord and of His Kingdom, but they only could understand naturally and literally and did not know the spiritual significance. The Lord was 'shut out' from a man's internal or spirit and he, now, knew nothing spiritual or internal concerning the Word or the Lord.
This brings us to the New Testament. The Old Testament given through Moses was preserved by the Jewish Church. However, these truths became of no effect on them by the time Jehovah came into the world. They could not see in that truth or Word what Jehovah or the Lord taught about His Coming. So, when the Lord did come on earth they rejected Him and, so, they rejected the Word as the Truth. We know it was necessary that the Lord come in order to redeem man. The Lord Himself taught that He was the way, the truth, and the life. We see the disciples and others wrote the words of Jesus Christ. They were inspired to write the Word by the Lord. This became the New Testament. Truths spoken to us in the Old Testament were explained by the Lord in the New Testament. A remnant (disciples and few others) of the Jews remained faithful to the promise of His coming and their eyes were opened to see and believed that in Jesus Christ was that promise fulfilled. The Lord again established a Church with man and the Word was with man to teach him. This was the early or primitive Christian Church. Now, this Church was still a natural Church like the Church before it; the spirit of man was not yet conjoined with his natural as it had been when the Church was celestial. This Christian Church could still not understand the Word spiritually, but only naturally as did the Jewish Church. When Thomas doubted that Jesus was the Father, it was proof he understood nothing spiritual, but only literal. Still, the Apostolic Church, by which is meant the Christian that began after the resurrection and that ended when Constantine embraced the Christian faith had saw the Lord as their Creator, Redeemer, and Savior and the Holy Spirit as operating within their mind and heart.
Yet, let us see what happened to the Word with the Apostolic Church. It was attacked. Arias began teaching that the Lord was human as is any man; that Jesus Christ had not become Divine. Faith had to be protected, so a council was ordered by Constantine and the Atheneasion Creed was the results. The Word was kept from the laity. Man was to be taught the truths from the Church's hierarchy. The common man was thought to be unable to understand the Word correctly. In effect, the Word was made of no effect as it was with the Jews when the Lord had come. However, as you see, after the Reformation a man could read it himself. Man is in spiritual freedom to understand the Word according to his ideas and beliefs; he can choose to follow its truths according to his own understanding.
So, any real redemption has to be able to conjoin man's natural mind with his spiritual, as the natural and the spiritual were in the beginning with mankind, only now, with wisdom and not as it was in the beginning when man was in innocence as is a child in innocence. They - the man of Most Ancient Church - chose evil and became evil. We, today, are born into that evil and as a result we sin. Today sin is termed as society's fault or as illness and not evil. Redemption comes from man knowing and acknowledging the Lord as his Creator and Redeemer and from acting in obedience to the laws of God, that is, in living from the Lord. This a man can do only if he understands truths, if not spiritually, then, at least naturally, for truth conjoins and man acts from these from the Lord. Those truths seen in his natural sense that conjoins man with God are seen clearly in the literal sense. They are: that God is One, and that He is Love, and that anger and revenge are not attributes of God and others, too, like the Commandments. These last, although other nations lived by them before they were promulgated by God to the Israelites, are God's truth and are spiritual, but man can only obey them naturally if correspondences are not known.
However, as you know many things are taught today that negate these commandments, things that blame God, such as He sends those to hell who reject Him. How can a God who is Love and Wisdom send man into damnation? Is it not rather that man chooses to love evil and so chooses hell? Did he not reject God's love and, therefore, His goodness and his truth? Thus, he accepts the evil as good and falsities as truth. Man is judged by his actions.
The Word in its literal sense is understood differently by everyone. A man will understand the Word according to those things that he loves and he loves either himself and the world or the Lord. If he loves the Lord it is according to his understanding of the Word. Most will not take the effort or time to learn what the Word teaches, but will accept what is taught by the Church. Thus, the Lord's New Chapel teaches that doctrine with a man is the understanding of the Word and is his life, because this understanding is controlled by his love. This is his true faith.
We have said that the Lord's New Chapel believes redemption to be the Lord bringing order to Heaven and subjugating the hells under His authority. He did this through His glorified Human. Unless the Word can be seen as having a spiritual or internal sense, how is the truth of the Last Judgment and the Lord's coming again to be understood? Such, internal truth that comes from the Lord leads to genuine truths and not to any imagined or supposed idea of what is meant in the Prophetic writings of the Word.
When the Lord comes again to man we are told man will understand these things more clearly. Even Paul says, "For now we see in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I know fully" (1 Col. 13: 12). So, Christian Churches wait for the Lord's coming in order to understand clearly these things. They wait for the Lord's Coming and the Last Judgment, and each ones understanding is according to their own understanding. Understanding is under the influence of what each man wills, and is under the rule of his love. They have looked for a natural or literal kingdom of God to be set up with them as the ruling nation on earth as those who died and entered the world of spirits did. No consideration is given to a spiritual meaning or sense of the Word.
If the Lord, who 'put on' or assumed the Human and glorified it and became united with the Divine, then doesn't the Word also have an internal and an external, that is, a spiritual and a natural just as the Lord does? Is not the Lord the Word, the Divine Truth as He claims He is? Does not the Word have both good and truth united in it as it is in the Lord? You can see that the Word is more than just a book with words concerning Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word is Life, and it brings life to man. It flows into a man's mind, into his will and understanding. Whether one says Holy Spirit, the Divine Proceeding and Operating or the Divine Word, the Lord, it is the same.
When the Lord returns to man in truth and in love it is His coming again to that man. To see the Lord physically as the disciples did would not be His coming into man's understanding and will. Besides, was the Lord not conjoined with man when He assumed a human of man's? Did not the Lord fight the evils that had attacked Him and overcome them? He has already conjoined Himself with man, though few men know this. He has united Himself with the Divine and the Divine cannot be seen by man. Man would be destroyed; for man's sinful nature cannot stand before a Righteous God. Further, the Lord said to His disciples, "I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14: 20). The Lord, we believe comes in the Word, even as He has always been with man as the Word, but He comes to man according to the man's understanding. He is present with man now in the Word written through Immanuel Swedenborg just as He is present with man in the Word written by Moses, David, and others - the Old, the New Testaments. I add, He is also present according to the understanding of the man, however, the Lord wills to be within the man and not just present with him. He is within man when man becomes regenerated.
Do you wonder at this statement? Do you think the religious writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are not the Word? To this is said: there are many in the world who does not believe the Bible is God's Word. The Jews rejected the New Testament as the Word of God. Why do you accept the Bible as the God's Word? I want you to think why it is that you accept the Bible as the Word? You might think about its canonization and say you believe the men who decided which books were to be included as the Bible. If so, you would believe others that the Bible is the Word of God, however not because you yourself know it is the truth and from God. Rather, is it not more likely that you believe the Bible to be the Word of God because when you read it and study it you are somehow touched or affected by the Lord, who comes now as the Spirit of truth, that is, as the Holy Spirit and you draw the conclusion that there is something Divine about it that causes you to believe it is God's love and His message to man and is sacred? And, this causes you to want to be obedient to its truths, and this, even, if only for the moment. It is like Moses having to take off his shoes while talking with Jehovah in the burning bush for it was sacred ground. This is the Lord, the Holy Spirit, who insinuates truth in you from your birth; it is in the teaching of love from your parents and from others about God's love and His truth. Well, we of the Lord's New Chapel, have the same feeling not only about the Old and New Testaments, but about the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which we call the Third Testament, or the Word of the Divine Human. For, in His glorification He became one with the Divine and has instructed His servant Emanuel Swedenborg to write what he saw and heard. In this Third Testament we see the Lord's coming again into our understanding, for in it His Coming is clearly explained as are many other things. I will quickly add to this, the words of the Third Testament by themselves are not His truths and goods with man, just as neither are the words of the Old and New Testaments His truths and goods in ones heart and mind unless they are read in love and understood as the Lord's truth and His good and lived accordingly. A man must be obedient to those truths learned from the Word; otherwise the words are only words in one's memory and are what are called the 'memory knowledge'.
Both these, we have said are from God and are with the man as his life when the man accepts them into his will and understanding. Now, these things are revealed to man in the Word of the Third Testament. It is in that Word that the Lord teaches this, because in that Word the internal sense is made manifest in its literal sense just as there are manifest truths in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old and New Testaments the internal sense is also now revealed, because men, who had continued to profane the Word, as those of the Ancient Church and the Israelitish Church did, are now vastated and these Churches consummated or ended and a new Church established.
It is after their consummation that the Lord made a way for man to be conjoined with Him and Heaven, a way for his spiritual and natural life to be conjoined in him. Man can now learn God's truths through his senses by listening to and by reading the Word in freedom and in obedience and, so; he can become enlightened and see internal truths. He is no longer under the persuasive influence of evil spirits, for hell is now under the subjugation of the Lord and this to eternity. The Lord could now make this way open to man, because He has glorified His Human, the human He assumed upon coming into the world. All power was His now and from this power He could fight the hells, the falsities and evils coming to man into his will and understanding and persuading man not to believe the Word. This is explained in Revelation as the Final Judgment. The judgment was against all those who died after the Christian Church began up to when the Final Judgment took place. These are people who had entered the next world, the spiritual, and had set up imagery kingdoms in the spiritual world according to their love of self just as men imagine what he believes from himself is true. Now, after the Judgment, those who were evil were kept in subjugation in hell. In this way man on earth today is kept in equilibrium in this world, that is, he can freely choose here to accept good and truth coming through his natural senses or he can reject that truth. He can confirm them in the Word as the Lord enlightens him to see such truths through an internal or spiritual sense and this, because the Lord has come again into his mind and unites his natural with his spiritual sense, through his obedience or acts of charity. And he can reject evil thoughts coming though his senses.
All Christians are aware of the Lord's coming again in the clouds of Heaven in power and glory. "And, they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24: 30). What does this mean to you? If the Word has an internal sense - a spiritual sense - and a natural sense, then angels understand these words spiritually while man on earth understands them naturally. What does it mean to angels? Would understanding this statement spiritually make this statement clearer? Let us take the time to see. What does 'glory' and 'power' mean in the spiritual sense? The Lord said that He would come in glory. Glorification was what the Lord accomplished in this world in His Human He had assumed. This we explained as uniting His Natural Human with His Spiritual Human, and thus, with the Celestial and He became the Divine Human. He became One with the Father. After His glorification He could not be seen except or unless He opened a man's spiritual eyes. "And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight" (Luke 24: 31). Speaking about the disciples: this, you can understand that the Lord's coming in glory means the Word coming in the spiritual sense to a man. We know that all power was given to the Lord after He was united with the Father, that is, with the Divine. Unless truth and good or love and wisdom as predicated to the Eternal and Infinite God are One, there is no power. It is this unity that effected creation and that sustains creation. Therefore, you are enabled to understand that when the Lord comes in power He will effect the man, who loves Him, because the man, then, has a willingness to be redeemed and be saved. So, the Lord comes in the spiritual sense to man with the ability or the power to redeem him who freely allows or chooses to do so.
What do 'clouds' mean? To understand this I will use an illustration. In the Word the Lord is sometimes called the Sun. In the book of the Apocalypse there is said that there is no night in Heaven, for the Lord is their light there. He is their Sun, not as the sun of the universe, by which we see natural and material things, but by which those of Heaven (angels) can see spiritual and substantial things. From the sun of the universe comes heat and light; from the Sun of the spiritual world or from the Lord comes love and wisdom. So, when an expression is used as, 'Now is see,' you know that the person means that he understands, not that he sees physically. Again, it is known that heat is often referred to as love, as may be seen in the expression, 'She or he is aglow with love' as when one is warm from love within. This, we can attest to ourselves when we are 'in love' with our spouse or fiancé or fiancée. Using the sun as an illustration of the Lord in the spiritual world, we can now understand that the heat and light of the sun illustrate the love and the wisdom of the Lord. We can see that good and truth or charity and faith that comes from the Lord.
This good and this truth we have shown as the Word. Now, when the Word is obscured from us as the clouds sometimes obscure the sun light and heat from us, we do not understand clearly. The Word or the Lord comes to us in the natural or the literal sense of the Third Testament, which is in power and glory when the internal sense is revealed to us. In this sense, man is redeemed, for man is, while on earth natural. The Word, that is, the Lord seen in Heaven is the understanding and love in the spiritual sense. In the Third Testament man can see the Lord's coming to the world if he desires to do so. So, the Lord's coming in the clouds of Heaven signifies the spiritual sense of the Word coming or revealed in the natural sense of the Word. From this, you can see by the Lord's coming in the Word to man with power is to bring man to understand the spiritual truth in the Word. This is why we say the Lord has come again in the Word of the Third Testament.
It is to those who are reformed and regenerated that He comes and forms a new will and understanding and that man comes into the kingdom of God and is called the sons of God. This brings us to the final part of this lecture. We have spoken of a belief in One God, who is our Creator and Redeemer. Then, we spoke of our belief concerning the Word of God. These beliefs, we said, are our faith. We acknowledge them as truths. But, if only acknowledged, they only remain as truths that are stored in our memory. They are then, as we said, just our memory knowledge. As such they are not a part of us, but need to be acted upon if they are to become our life from the Lord. Man must live a life according to his faith or belief if it is really his faith. This is our third essential belief - use.
For man to be a man, he must act 'as if' from himself, but know that it is the Lord who acts within him. If a man wants to receive life from the Lord and just waits for the Lord to act in him, he is then as a stump, and the Lord will not cause him to move or act; therefore he must, 'as if' himself act. In this way he freely chooses to follow the Lord and he then reciprocates love to others and to the Lord. Up to now I have mainly spoke about truth or faith, and about what is our faith. I have only slightly mentioned charity or love. Without these two united in man, without the understanding and the will united in man there is no regeneration, no redemption. With understanding or truth a man may be reformed. However, when understanding is conjoined with his will or his love there is then his regeneration. Truth is learned; it is appropriated by man through his senses, that is, through seeing, hearing, etc. We learn the Lord's truths from teaching and instruction of our parents, from school teachers and ministers and when reading the Word to know the Lord and His truths. This ability is given to man all throughout his life while on earth. But, how do we receive or unite this truth with good or faith with charity? The world understands charity as giving to the poor or helping others with material wealth. There is a saying about kind words not really helping; that what is needed is something substantial like food or money. However, these are merely man's works. Unless we have faith and charity together from the Lord, our charity is works in which is the love of self and of the world. In this there is no true charity. Charity, like love, comes from God. It is God's love to man. Recall, man had rejected the Lord's love.
So, what is charity? We have said man was made as a receptacle of the Lord's love and wisdom, that is, he is to receive them. So, how is His love or charity received or appropriated into a man's will? Charity is like an affection of the mind that works or causes the action of the body. Now, it is only the Lord that can do good works. The Lord is in man's will, in his spirit, with which man was created. It is the Lord's love in a man, but this love remains deep in his soul and 'as it were' is shut off from the man because of sin. There charity is in the internal man and consists in his willing good from good and in doing works are in the external man. In doing good from willing good charity is united with faith, thus the man is regenerated. Then, man wills what is good, thinks from charity and does well. This is what we call 'uses'. Otherwise, to want to do good and think from love, but not do or act is to have a head or mind and no body or form in which to exist. All this may be seen in the Word, "Whosoever hears these saying of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock" (Luke 6: 47). Man is also likened to a tree in the Word. The seed in man is his soul, in which end, intention, and purpose are in, which is to produce fruit or good works. Therefore, it is not the man who does good works, but it is the Lord and the Lord is the seed within.
Part 1
All Churches have beliefs which are their doctrine and their faith. They are taken from the Word and in fact, if it were not for the Bible or the Word of God, the doctrines concerning the various beliefs and a life lived according to them man would be in a state worse than that of any wild animal. This is because the Word of God teaches man how he should live; it teaches him about the Lord, about the Heavens and the Church and about the Lord's preceding good and truth and, of course, many other things concerning a man's regeneration and salvation. You could say the Lord's Word brings life to man more abundantly.In the previous lecture, we dealt with the Holy Spirit and said that the creation was from the Divine Good and Truth and that this was understood as the Spirit of God or Jehovah as can be seen evidenced in the Old Testament. What needs, here, to be known is that the Word, the Divine Truth, has always been with man. If one accepts this as being true, then he can understand that the Word of God is more than just a book called the Bible with books of the Old and New Testaments in it. It is more than a book explaining to man's natural understanding God's truth and His love. There is something more internal, something spiritual and celestial and even Divine and Sacred about the Word
Let us see what the Word was with the men of the first Church on earth. Remember, we called this Church, the Most Ancient Church. What was their Word? Can you guess? Of course, it was the presence of Jehovah God with them. Since God created the world and all things in it and then created man to enjoy and benefit from the things created - the trees, the birds, and animals - then, in all creation there is seen something of God, something of His love and wisdom in them. I know many who have expressed the beauty and the wonder of the creation. They have said things like, 'Who does not see God in all this?' Others, who study nature, the animals and plant life, have become utterly amazed at their findings and have expressed something like, 'Only God could have created all this wonder.' They agree that only God, who is Love and Wisdom could have created the world and sustains it.
So, as the man of that early Church looked at God's creation, he learned about God, and about his love for him. The internal or spiritual and celestial thoughts and ideas, the truths and goods, the proceeding love and wisdom of God was operating in man's in his will and in his understanding through perception, that is, from within. This was the Word with them. This still happens today, but now man lives in the natural state and is no longer is in the celestial state when he was in paradise, so he cannot perceive the Lord and His truth and good as they did. Today, when nature is seen, heard, felt, tasted and smelled, that is, when it is sensed by man, man may not learn the Lord's truths and form a doctrine with which he can grow and mature and come into a closer relationship with the Lord and Heaven, but he can learn truths and goods through the Word that the Lord gives man from without or through his senses, not through perception from within.
However, this way (through perception) of learning and knowing truth was destroyed with man. This is because of the man's love for him self and for worldly things; he began to falsify the truths that are insinuated into him from the Lord. You can imagine, then, the man's decline into evil. Now we have said God's Word had to be with man so that he may truly live. His Word brings life to man. How, then, was life to remain with man since this way was now destroyed? How could man's life not be profaned by man who now loved himself and the world, and who had rejected the Lord's love? Between the Most Ancient Church and the Israelitish Church or between Adam and Moses when the Old Testament was given, there was the Ancient Church. Now, we know there was an Ancient Church, because it is revealed in the Old Testament in Moses and in Jeremiah, that there had been an ancient Word. Their Word was called the "Wars of Jehovah" and "Enunciations". (See Numbers 21: 14, 15.) This Ancient Word recorded the histories of the Ancient Church much like the Old Testament is a record of the histories of the Israelites and the Jews. However, this Ancient Word was lost to mankind.
Why was the Ancient Word lost? Adam or the Most Ancient Church learned truths from nature through an internal way or sense (through perception), then, the Ancient Church recorded these truths, which were their Word. You can see that they were spiritual things, things about the Lord and His Kingdom and about paradise. These are represented in the Word as things of nature and are called correspondences. They were recorded down and, so, became their Word. When man had turned from God, he was lost. Yet, some of them believed the Lord would come and redeem man as He had promised. The truths of the Lord's love were recorded and became the doctrines of the Ancient Church. And so, the Lord was also present with them in the Word; it taught the correspondences between Heaven and the earth. This Church was a spiritual Church, for they learned spiritual truths.
Correspondences were just mentioned in the Word. In fact, the Word was written by correspondences. In this way an angel, who is spiritual or celestial, can have an understanding of the Word. They live according to their understanding of the Word just as a man should according to his own natural understanding. The truths with men are for their understanding and the truths with angels are for their understanding. The man of the Most Ancient Church, was in communication with Heaven, and had even talked with angels and the Lord. Yet they tried to hide themselves when the Lord called when they had disobeyed Him. Thus, they had destroyed the internal or celestial means of learning truth and correspondences were eventually lost and, thus, their perception. Thus, it was 'as if' the Bible had been lost to us and what we could remember was also soon lost. As time passed, man forgot the scientifics of correspondences. The Ancient Church declined into idolatry and sacrifices. Now, this all was necessary because man had begun using correspondences to enhance his own loves with knowledge over others who had lost this ability. Men began to rule over others with this knowledge of correspondences. You can learn about this in the Old Testament in the account of Moses and Aaron's coming to Pharaoh. The Pharaoh's magicians could perform similar miracles as could Aaron with the rod through God. Fortunately, this ability became destroyed with all mankind.
The Word of God was spoken to certain men of the Israelites. The Israelites were external or natural men and were not like the man of the Most Ancient Church - celestial - or even like the Ancient Church man who was spiritual. The Most Ancient Church fell, but some came into the spiritual state (Noah's family) and was called the Ancient Church and these knew correspondences of spiritual things with natural things as has been mentioned. (Remember there was born to the Adamic Church another son, Seth, after Able was killed.) Next, the Israelitish Church and not have the ability to see these correspondences between natural and Heavenly things and the Word was understood purely in its natural sense. All their worship and sacrifices was representative of the Lord and of His Kingdom, but they only could understand naturally and literally and did not know the spiritual significance. The Lord was 'shut out' from a man's internal or spirit and he, now, knew nothing spiritual or internal concerning the Word or the Lord.
This brings us to the New Testament. The Old Testament given through Moses was preserved by the Jewish Church. However, these truths became of no effect on them by the time Jehovah came into the world. They could not see in that truth or Word what Jehovah or the Lord taught about His Coming. So, when the Lord did come on earth they rejected Him and, so, they rejected the Word as the Truth. We know it was necessary that the Lord come in order to redeem man. The Lord Himself taught that He was the way, the truth, and the life. We see the disciples and others wrote the words of Jesus Christ. They were inspired to write the Word by the Lord. This became the New Testament. Truths spoken to us in the Old Testament were explained by the Lord in the New Testament. A remnant (disciples and few others) of the Jews remained faithful to the promise of His coming and their eyes were opened to see and believed that in Jesus Christ was that promise fulfilled. The Lord again established a Church with man and the Word was with man to teach him. This was the early or primitive Christian Church. Now, this Church was still a natural Church like the Church before it; the spirit of man was not yet conjoined with his natural as it had been when the Church was celestial. This Christian Church could still not understand the Word spiritually, but only naturally as did the Jewish Church. When Thomas doubted that Jesus was the Father, it was proof he understood nothing spiritual, but only literal. Still, the Apostolic Church, by which is meant the Christian that began after the resurrection and that ended when Constantine embraced the Christian faith had saw the Lord as their Creator, Redeemer, and Savior and the Holy Spirit as operating within their mind and heart.
Yet, let us see what happened to the Word with the Apostolic Church. It was attacked. Arias began teaching that the Lord was human as is any man; that Jesus Christ had not become Divine. Faith had to be protected, so a council was ordered by Constantine and the Atheneasion Creed was the results. The Word was kept from the laity. Man was to be taught the truths from the Church's hierarchy. The common man was thought to be unable to understand the Word correctly. In effect, the Word was made of no effect as it was with the Jews when the Lord had come. However, as you see, after the Reformation a man could read it himself. Man is in spiritual freedom to understand the Word according to his ideas and beliefs; he can choose to follow its truths according to his own understanding.
Part 2
Now let us turn to the promise of redemption. The Word is the Lord and since the Lord redeems man, then it is the Word that redeems man when it is believed and lived accordingly. This is evidenced by these words, "The words I speak to you are spirit and life" (John 6: 63). The disciples had asked the Lord what would happen when He would come again. They asked when would He come and set up His kingdom on earth. John the Revelator, wrote the Apocalypse in which there are seen in great detail the fate of the Christian Church, its final judgment, and told about the New Heaven and New Jerusalem which is the New Church that was to come on earth. Yet, who can understand what the symbolism in this work mean unless he has an understanding of correspondences as did the man of the Ancient Church or unless he is able to receive truths through his spirit and from within as did Adam, the Most Ancient Church. Otherwise, man cannot know the genuine truths of these words or any others in the Word, though he can see apparent truths.So, any real redemption has to be able to conjoin man's natural mind with his spiritual, as the natural and the spiritual were in the beginning with mankind, only now, with wisdom and not as it was in the beginning when man was in innocence as is a child in innocence. They - the man of Most Ancient Church - chose evil and became evil. We, today, are born into that evil and as a result we sin. Today sin is termed as society's fault or as illness and not evil. Redemption comes from man knowing and acknowledging the Lord as his Creator and Redeemer and from acting in obedience to the laws of God, that is, in living from the Lord. This a man can do only if he understands truths, if not spiritually, then, at least naturally, for truth conjoins and man acts from these from the Lord. Those truths seen in his natural sense that conjoins man with God are seen clearly in the literal sense. They are: that God is One, and that He is Love, and that anger and revenge are not attributes of God and others, too, like the Commandments. These last, although other nations lived by them before they were promulgated by God to the Israelites, are God's truth and are spiritual, but man can only obey them naturally if correspondences are not known.
However, as you know many things are taught today that negate these commandments, things that blame God, such as He sends those to hell who reject Him. How can a God who is Love and Wisdom send man into damnation? Is it not rather that man chooses to love evil and so chooses hell? Did he not reject God's love and, therefore, His goodness and his truth? Thus, he accepts the evil as good and falsities as truth. Man is judged by his actions.
The Word in its literal sense is understood differently by everyone. A man will understand the Word according to those things that he loves and he loves either himself and the world or the Lord. If he loves the Lord it is according to his understanding of the Word. Most will not take the effort or time to learn what the Word teaches, but will accept what is taught by the Church. Thus, the Lord's New Chapel teaches that doctrine with a man is the understanding of the Word and is his life, because this understanding is controlled by his love. This is his true faith.
We have said that the Lord's New Chapel believes redemption to be the Lord bringing order to Heaven and subjugating the hells under His authority. He did this through His glorified Human. Unless the Word can be seen as having a spiritual or internal sense, how is the truth of the Last Judgment and the Lord's coming again to be understood? Such, internal truth that comes from the Lord leads to genuine truths and not to any imagined or supposed idea of what is meant in the Prophetic writings of the Word.
When the Lord comes again to man we are told man will understand these things more clearly. Even Paul says, "For now we see in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I know fully" (1 Col. 13: 12). So, Christian Churches wait for the Lord's coming in order to understand clearly these things. They wait for the Lord's Coming and the Last Judgment, and each ones understanding is according to their own understanding. Understanding is under the influence of what each man wills, and is under the rule of his love. They have looked for a natural or literal kingdom of God to be set up with them as the ruling nation on earth as those who died and entered the world of spirits did. No consideration is given to a spiritual meaning or sense of the Word.
If the Lord, who 'put on' or assumed the Human and glorified it and became united with the Divine, then doesn't the Word also have an internal and an external, that is, a spiritual and a natural just as the Lord does? Is not the Lord the Word, the Divine Truth as He claims He is? Does not the Word have both good and truth united in it as it is in the Lord? You can see that the Word is more than just a book with words concerning Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word is Life, and it brings life to man. It flows into a man's mind, into his will and understanding. Whether one says Holy Spirit, the Divine Proceeding and Operating or the Divine Word, the Lord, it is the same.
When the Lord returns to man in truth and in love it is His coming again to that man. To see the Lord physically as the disciples did would not be His coming into man's understanding and will. Besides, was the Lord not conjoined with man when He assumed a human of man's? Did not the Lord fight the evils that had attacked Him and overcome them? He has already conjoined Himself with man, though few men know this. He has united Himself with the Divine and the Divine cannot be seen by man. Man would be destroyed; for man's sinful nature cannot stand before a Righteous God. Further, the Lord said to His disciples, "I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14: 20). The Lord, we believe comes in the Word, even as He has always been with man as the Word, but He comes to man according to the man's understanding. He is present with man now in the Word written through Immanuel Swedenborg just as He is present with man in the Word written by Moses, David, and others - the Old, the New Testaments. I add, He is also present according to the understanding of the man, however, the Lord wills to be within the man and not just present with him. He is within man when man becomes regenerated.
Do you wonder at this statement? Do you think the religious writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are not the Word? To this is said: there are many in the world who does not believe the Bible is God's Word. The Jews rejected the New Testament as the Word of God. Why do you accept the Bible as the God's Word? I want you to think why it is that you accept the Bible as the Word? You might think about its canonization and say you believe the men who decided which books were to be included as the Bible. If so, you would believe others that the Bible is the Word of God, however not because you yourself know it is the truth and from God. Rather, is it not more likely that you believe the Bible to be the Word of God because when you read it and study it you are somehow touched or affected by the Lord, who comes now as the Spirit of truth, that is, as the Holy Spirit and you draw the conclusion that there is something Divine about it that causes you to believe it is God's love and His message to man and is sacred? And, this causes you to want to be obedient to its truths, and this, even, if only for the moment. It is like Moses having to take off his shoes while talking with Jehovah in the burning bush for it was sacred ground. This is the Lord, the Holy Spirit, who insinuates truth in you from your birth; it is in the teaching of love from your parents and from others about God's love and His truth. Well, we of the Lord's New Chapel, have the same feeling not only about the Old and New Testaments, but about the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which we call the Third Testament, or the Word of the Divine Human. For, in His glorification He became one with the Divine and has instructed His servant Emanuel Swedenborg to write what he saw and heard. In this Third Testament we see the Lord's coming again into our understanding, for in it His Coming is clearly explained as are many other things. I will quickly add to this, the words of the Third Testament by themselves are not His truths and goods with man, just as neither are the words of the Old and New Testaments His truths and goods in ones heart and mind unless they are read in love and understood as the Lord's truth and His good and lived accordingly. A man must be obedient to those truths learned from the Word; otherwise the words are only words in one's memory and are what are called the 'memory knowledge'.
Part 3
Now, we believe that the Word of God is composed of love and wisdom or of good and truth, even as the Lord Himself is Love and Wisdom. We also believe that in all the Word there is revealed the Lord, His Kingdom, and things that concern the Scriptures. This is found in every thought and idea expressed, even in each word in the Word. This is because the Lord is Infinite, and therefore the Word is Infinite. It can never cease revealing truths. You have perhaps experienced that no matter how many times you read the Word, you can see something there in it that was not revealed before. We had mentioned that the two essentials, good and truth, were together in the Word. They are there together as in a marriage. In the Word there can be found truths and goods spoken of in the same place. Where God's truth may be seen, so also, is His good present, unless one does not believe God created him, that is, that he thinks he is a product of nature. In that case, the truths of the Word are not truths with him, but are mere memory knowledge and even then could be falsities. Such a man does not think life comes from God, but somehow from himself. The marriage of good and truth in the Word is seen only from a faith in truth from good and a faith of good from truth. Faith and charity are the same as truth and goodness. One without the other is neither truth nor good, but mere thoughts without acts. Where the Word speaks of faith it speaks of charity and where you understand charity, faith is also taught, even though it is not always seen.Both these, we have said are from God and are with the man as his life when the man accepts them into his will and understanding. Now, these things are revealed to man in the Word of the Third Testament. It is in that Word that the Lord teaches this, because in that Word the internal sense is made manifest in its literal sense just as there are manifest truths in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old and New Testaments the internal sense is also now revealed, because men, who had continued to profane the Word, as those of the Ancient Church and the Israelitish Church did, are now vastated and these Churches consummated or ended and a new Church established.
It is after their consummation that the Lord made a way for man to be conjoined with Him and Heaven, a way for his spiritual and natural life to be conjoined in him. Man can now learn God's truths through his senses by listening to and by reading the Word in freedom and in obedience and, so; he can become enlightened and see internal truths. He is no longer under the persuasive influence of evil spirits, for hell is now under the subjugation of the Lord and this to eternity. The Lord could now make this way open to man, because He has glorified His Human, the human He assumed upon coming into the world. All power was His now and from this power He could fight the hells, the falsities and evils coming to man into his will and understanding and persuading man not to believe the Word. This is explained in Revelation as the Final Judgment. The judgment was against all those who died after the Christian Church began up to when the Final Judgment took place. These are people who had entered the next world, the spiritual, and had set up imagery kingdoms in the spiritual world according to their love of self just as men imagine what he believes from himself is true. Now, after the Judgment, those who were evil were kept in subjugation in hell. In this way man on earth today is kept in equilibrium in this world, that is, he can freely choose here to accept good and truth coming through his natural senses or he can reject that truth. He can confirm them in the Word as the Lord enlightens him to see such truths through an internal or spiritual sense and this, because the Lord has come again into his mind and unites his natural with his spiritual sense, through his obedience or acts of charity. And he can reject evil thoughts coming though his senses.
All Christians are aware of the Lord's coming again in the clouds of Heaven in power and glory. "And, they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24: 30). What does this mean to you? If the Word has an internal sense - a spiritual sense - and a natural sense, then angels understand these words spiritually while man on earth understands them naturally. What does it mean to angels? Would understanding this statement spiritually make this statement clearer? Let us take the time to see. What does 'glory' and 'power' mean in the spiritual sense? The Lord said that He would come in glory. Glorification was what the Lord accomplished in this world in His Human He had assumed. This we explained as uniting His Natural Human with His Spiritual Human, and thus, with the Celestial and He became the Divine Human. He became One with the Father. After His glorification He could not be seen except or unless He opened a man's spiritual eyes. "And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight" (Luke 24: 31). Speaking about the disciples: this, you can understand that the Lord's coming in glory means the Word coming in the spiritual sense to a man. We know that all power was given to the Lord after He was united with the Father, that is, with the Divine. Unless truth and good or love and wisdom as predicated to the Eternal and Infinite God are One, there is no power. It is this unity that effected creation and that sustains creation. Therefore, you are enabled to understand that when the Lord comes in power He will effect the man, who loves Him, because the man, then, has a willingness to be redeemed and be saved. So, the Lord comes in the spiritual sense to man with the ability or the power to redeem him who freely allows or chooses to do so.
What do 'clouds' mean? To understand this I will use an illustration. In the Word the Lord is sometimes called the Sun. In the book of the Apocalypse there is said that there is no night in Heaven, for the Lord is their light there. He is their Sun, not as the sun of the universe, by which we see natural and material things, but by which those of Heaven (angels) can see spiritual and substantial things. From the sun of the universe comes heat and light; from the Sun of the spiritual world or from the Lord comes love and wisdom. So, when an expression is used as, 'Now is see,' you know that the person means that he understands, not that he sees physically. Again, it is known that heat is often referred to as love, as may be seen in the expression, 'She or he is aglow with love' as when one is warm from love within. This, we can attest to ourselves when we are 'in love' with our spouse or fiancé or fiancée. Using the sun as an illustration of the Lord in the spiritual world, we can now understand that the heat and light of the sun illustrate the love and the wisdom of the Lord. We can see that good and truth or charity and faith that comes from the Lord.
This good and this truth we have shown as the Word. Now, when the Word is obscured from us as the clouds sometimes obscure the sun light and heat from us, we do not understand clearly. The Word or the Lord comes to us in the natural or the literal sense of the Third Testament, which is in power and glory when the internal sense is revealed to us. In this sense, man is redeemed, for man is, while on earth natural. The Word, that is, the Lord seen in Heaven is the understanding and love in the spiritual sense. In the Third Testament man can see the Lord's coming to the world if he desires to do so. So, the Lord's coming in the clouds of Heaven signifies the spiritual sense of the Word coming or revealed in the natural sense of the Word. From this, you can see by the Lord's coming in the Word to man with power is to bring man to understand the spiritual truth in the Word. This is why we say the Lord has come again in the Word of the Third Testament.
It is to those who are reformed and regenerated that He comes and forms a new will and understanding and that man comes into the kingdom of God and is called the sons of God. This brings us to the final part of this lecture. We have spoken of a belief in One God, who is our Creator and Redeemer. Then, we spoke of our belief concerning the Word of God. These beliefs, we said, are our faith. We acknowledge them as truths. But, if only acknowledged, they only remain as truths that are stored in our memory. They are then, as we said, just our memory knowledge. As such they are not a part of us, but need to be acted upon if they are to become our life from the Lord. Man must live a life according to his faith or belief if it is really his faith. This is our third essential belief - use.
For man to be a man, he must act 'as if' from himself, but know that it is the Lord who acts within him. If a man wants to receive life from the Lord and just waits for the Lord to act in him, he is then as a stump, and the Lord will not cause him to move or act; therefore he must, 'as if' himself act. In this way he freely chooses to follow the Lord and he then reciprocates love to others and to the Lord. Up to now I have mainly spoke about truth or faith, and about what is our faith. I have only slightly mentioned charity or love. Without these two united in man, without the understanding and the will united in man there is no regeneration, no redemption. With understanding or truth a man may be reformed. However, when understanding is conjoined with his will or his love there is then his regeneration. Truth is learned; it is appropriated by man through his senses, that is, through seeing, hearing, etc. We learn the Lord's truths from teaching and instruction of our parents, from school teachers and ministers and when reading the Word to know the Lord and His truths. This ability is given to man all throughout his life while on earth. But, how do we receive or unite this truth with good or faith with charity? The world understands charity as giving to the poor or helping others with material wealth. There is a saying about kind words not really helping; that what is needed is something substantial like food or money. However, these are merely man's works. Unless we have faith and charity together from the Lord, our charity is works in which is the love of self and of the world. In this there is no true charity. Charity, like love, comes from God. It is God's love to man. Recall, man had rejected the Lord's love.
So, what is charity? We have said man was made as a receptacle of the Lord's love and wisdom, that is, he is to receive them. So, how is His love or charity received or appropriated into a man's will? Charity is like an affection of the mind that works or causes the action of the body. Now, it is only the Lord that can do good works. The Lord is in man's will, in his spirit, with which man was created. It is the Lord's love in a man, but this love remains deep in his soul and 'as it were' is shut off from the man because of sin. There charity is in the internal man and consists in his willing good from good and in doing works are in the external man. In doing good from willing good charity is united with faith, thus the man is regenerated. Then, man wills what is good, thinks from charity and does well. This is what we call 'uses'. Otherwise, to want to do good and think from love, but not do or act is to have a head or mind and no body or form in which to exist. All this may be seen in the Word, "Whosoever hears these saying of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock" (Luke 6: 47). Man is also likened to a tree in the Word. The seed in man is his soul, in which end, intention, and purpose are in, which is to produce fruit or good works. Therefore, it is not the man who does good works, but it is the Lord and the Lord is the seed within.
When charity and faith are united like good and truth in man as heat and light in springtime, then all things a man does good to the neighbor and all truths in his thoughts are of God and of Divine things. These three - the Lord, charity, and faith - make one life as does the will, understanding, and use make the man a man. It is in a man's internal perception that when a man believes truth and does not live those truths that he will not be saved. For it can be said that if he really believes the Word, he would act according to his belief or faith and according to the truths learned and the good given to him. We must love the Lord God with all our heart and mind and love the neighbor as ourselves. A Christian loves the Lord according to his understanding of Him. We see the One God in one person, as soul, body, and spirit or proceeding influence. We see a Lord God whose love for mankind had not turned into anger when man rejected Him. We see or understand the Lord, who went out into the world and brought us back into His kingdom into Heaven, like the parable of the Good Shepherd who brought back the lost sheep into the fold. We see the Lord gave us freedom in spiritual things so that we can choose 'as if' from our self to follow the Lord and His Word. Still, His love does not persuade anyone against his will. Only we, ourselves, have that freedom to persuade ourselves of the truths of the Word about the Lord and about ourselves, and then can follow or do them.
Therefore, we believe man must first 'put away' evil; he must repent, and then to do good from the Lord and to his neighbor. Evil in man is there hereditarily. Therefore man is influenced by his self to do evil. One can see that if he does not 'put away' or shun evils as sins, all his goods or works will be from self and evil. Do you ask why? It is because evil is in man's will and becomes a desire of man; it is his ruling love and his understanding is under the influence of his love of self and of the world. However, a man can learn the truth and receive God's love; he can want to be conjoined with good, that is, with the Lord and, so, can live according to a new understanding of the Word and will according to a new will from the Lord.
End.
Therefore, we believe man must first 'put away' evil; he must repent, and then to do good from the Lord and to his neighbor. Evil in man is there hereditarily. Therefore man is influenced by his self to do evil. One can see that if he does not 'put away' or shun evils as sins, all his goods or works will be from self and evil. Do you ask why? It is because evil is in man's will and becomes a desire of man; it is his ruling love and his understanding is under the influence of his love of self and of the world. However, a man can learn the truth and receive God's love; he can want to be conjoined with good, that is, with the Lord and, so, can live according to a new understanding of the Word and will according to a new will from the Lord.
End.
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