The Role Spiritual Scientifics Play in the Word: How Man can 'see' God as in a 'Mirror' Today
By Rev. Paul Booth
By Rev. Paul Booth
The celestial man saw God and the angels see God, but man today does not see Him. We are not talking here of seeing in the physical sense in the presence of God, but as having an understanding, of knowing and of an acknowledgement of God, that He is within one's mind - in his will and understanding - and, so, 'as it was' His presence before him. Because of man's desire to know, and to have the knowledge of good and evil by himself, man was granted his desire and as a result, 'fell' from God's grace, and from his celestial state. His will and his understanding became distorted and the celestial of man became closed and eventually destroyed. Thus, man today must now receive a new understanding and will that he live again; he must be born again spiritually.
Because of his fallen state, a man now must 'as if' of himself learn the truths that teach him about God. Man is no longer in the state where he receives these truths immediately or directly from God as when he was in the celestial state. Man now lives in the natural state and it is now through his sensual life that he learns what is good and true, and what is evil and false. The knowledge man gains or learns and knows of God and of good and truth must now be through observation and, thus through his natural senses. What a man sees, feels, excreta, he gathers into his memory and he calls these scientific knowledge. Let us further understand what had happened to man, for there is a difference in the man today then in the man who had lived when God had created the world, who was called in the Word - Adam. For, in understanding this we can come to understand our subject: the use of or representative of Scientifics or mirrors in the Word of the Divine Human, which the Latin Word sometimes called the Third Testament. We have all been given a will and an understanding or a mind. But, God in creating man that he become made into His image and likeness, created him so that it was his will that was regenerated that he came into the celestial state and that was by inseminating into him what is called the 'good of charity'. In that way, they knew the 'truths of faith'. Those who come into the 'good of charity' come to do well or good from willing well or good. Such are of the internal Church which called the celestial Church. 'Truths of faith' are the doctrines leading to eternal life. The result of inseminating such 'good' was that a man appropriated for himself charity or love towards one another and love to God. From that there was an internal sensation in communication with the Lord God, who he called Jehovah. This was called 'perception'; the celestial man saw and the 'truths of faith in his intellectual part or in his understanding as in a mirror, thus as not being his own, but God's. From this we see that the Celestial man was of a certain geniis.
It is known that in a man's face can be seen what his affections are. This was especially true of the man who lived before falling because of sin from paradise or from his celestial state; however, today a man can conceal his real love and so it is not reflected in his face. However, in the celestial man's face could be seen God's in an image, for he had affection for God and His love flowed 'as it were' into him and in his reciprocating God's love his face reflected his love. It is in this that the Lord can be seen or known, for in a person could be seen the interior things - the good and true things of God - 'as if' in a mirror. One could see another's feeling towards them. One could see and feel 'as it were' a person's love to or for another. You can see that this is not so today, for a man sees by the light of this world, not from the light of Heaven, because, today, man's love is generally for himself and not his neighbor or even for God, unless he has been taught and led. In this, we can see man is now of a different geniis.
Anyone who has any religion today knows God did not just leave man to come to his end of his existence, that mankind ceases. God continues to reveal Himself to mankind, but not as before in celestial presence, but in other ways accommodated through natural means.
At first, God's presence continued with those who could recall, and so, live how it had been with them before their fall when man lived in that love given to him from the Lord God through the will. You see, when the celestial man lived a written language had not, yet, been developed, so the memory of God and His love was passed down through their posterity from one man to man. However, eventually the posterity of the Celestial man ended so that the man that remained was not of the same geniis. And, if not for God's love for man, mankind would have ceased all together. However, God was still present with man in those remaining goods and truth within a few of the celestial man's posterity. Man, now, through his natural senses, developed what he thought was the truth and from this he said or determined what was good. Mankind developed what is called, today, the sciences. And, as said, a written language developed.
In this, we can see those truths that the celestial man had been taught and that were later inspired by God and written down, as evidenced in the Old Testament. The results, the Ancient man could learn these truths concerning charity, but instead of being regenerated through their wills as the celestial man was, their understanding or their intellectual became regenerated. Thus, man, now, must first lean the 'truths of faith' and assimilate them that he learn what is good, think and will, and so, do it; and thus was God's grace through charity within man again. In this, a man was given a 'new' will that he come into an internal or spiritual understanding. Fallen mankind had become merely natural and no longer celestial, but through sensual Scientifics he learned what was good and true, though only because the Word of God was written down so that they could learn of God, from God Himself, though not as had been taught when man was a celestial man.
Those truths the man now learned from God were, as said, spiritual truths, not celestial, and because man learned them and lived by them, he became a spiritual man or as one who does good or charity from truth, not from love as the celestial man did. It was thus that in religious Scientifics found in that first written Word, that man could see the truths of charity. In fact, the spiritual man's doctrine was of charity, while the celestial man's was of love to God.
In that Word given to the spiritual man, a person could see or learn the correspondences between spiritual or Heavenly things with natural things of the earth. He could in that way learn the truths and goods taught by God through his natural senses. It was in such a way that the spiritual man learned of the Lord God and turned to worship Him and to look forward to His coming, and for His salvation. It was through Scientifics or the sciences that he gathered natural truths, thus he could see God's image in nature as it reflected all God's goods and truths. In the spiritual man's obedience to God's Word, he could see those truths and goods in himself as in a mirror, and so it is that Scientifics are as mirrors so that man can see God spiritually. Thus, it is that in reflecting on these things in nature according to that Word that was given to them, that had entered their mind or understanding through their senses that they could see the good of charity and, thus that God was present within them in His love.
In this, we see that the man's natural life is to become subordinate to the his spiritual life. We can see that such a man is a spiritual man in that he is obedient to his spiritual entity and not his natural desires. He brings forth these in act according to the spiritual truths that are received from God, though, now, through Scientifics his natural senses.
In time though, this Revelation of God - the Ancient Word - was lost, in which were the science of correspondences. The Ancient man no longer became regenerated and instead of truths entering falsities entered his mind and falsities acted upon, become evils. The results, the spiritual man fell or sinned just as did the celestial man. He began using the science of correspondences for personal power and gain, thus destroying them as the celestial man did the truths when he fell into the natural and sensuous state. Eventually, in this natural state, he no longer knew what natural things on earth corresponded to in Heaven, so also, did their life of charity end. Their worship of God, their life of charity was not passed on to their posterity and the things in their worship - the idols they made of various animals that represented things in their worship - were no longer known. So, man began worshipping these idols themselves as their God and in time even worshipped certain men as God. They did not know what these represented things of religion signified. Mankind had again returned to the natural and sensuous state. However, again, in some there was a remnant of truths and goods and, God again came to them in a new Word to lead and guide them, and we see that this was the Old Testament written by Moses and the prophets of Israel. This Word was written to accommodate the natural state of those that we know as the Israelites, and it did not have or reveal the correspondences as the Ancient Word before had, for mankind was now too external and would have contaminated and profaned them and would have died in hell.
It has been stated that Scientifics are like a mirror which has replaced the celestial man's ability to learn and know what is good and true from God, and thus, for him to become regenerated and, how, that it was through the will that he was regenerated. We saw also that it was through the spiritual man's understanding that he was regenerated. This, in fact, is opposite to what the Divine order was. From this we learn that the man, today, is of an entirely different geniis. The celestial man had developed 'perception', thus he knew what was good and true from within, from the Lord in his will and his understanding reflected those goods and truths of God's 'as if' being seen in a mirror. While the spiritual man developed a conscience and knew what was good and true from their conscience learned from Scientifics from the Word of God - the Ancient Word.
We learned that after man's fall he had to use his natural senses, for he had become corporeal and sensual, and through his senses he was to see or learn what was good and true or evil and false. Eventually, the celestial geniis of man ended, but before it did, before their will and understanding became completely destroyed, we saw that some of these truths and goods had remained in their memory that had been taught to them from God. These were those who had heard from others who had lived in that prime celestial state and who told about God and His love and were eventually written down by certain men chosen and inspired by God.
We learned, in the course of mankind's development, man developed a written language and those words were written and became the first written Word of God to man. Those who began to take or appropriate these words into their own understanding through their senses by reading and listening developed a religion and worshipped of God. The result was that a conscience was formed in them. Basically, it was to do no evil, but only good to one another. Thus, when thoughts came to them that were contrary to good anxieties or torments of conscience appeared. Conscience had replaced perception in man. Where, before the celestial man knew through perception immediately what was good and true from God, now the spiritual man knew indirectly or through his natural senses what was good and true (or what he thought was good and true) when he lived accordingly or in charity.
These anxieties or torments of conscience appear to be from within one's self. And those who believe and developed a religion worshipped God accordingly, are those who see themselves as in a mirror, but knows it is not one's self who he sees in the mirror, but it is a representative image either of good and truth, thus of God, if he has been led through his conscience or of evil and falsity if not. Instead of this image of good and truth being reflected in his development as it was with the celestial man, the spiritual man's will became like a mirror reflecting truth and good that comes through his senses through Scientifics learned in the Word. Here, Scientifics of the Word which enter the memory of man are like an image seen in a mirror and the man comes to realize that his life comes from God and is not from his will or soul, thus not of one's self. He, in fact, comes to understand that his will is like a mirror and that that mirror is within him and is his will. Then, isn't those Scientifics a reflection of God? And if not, then he rejects God. Thus, the spiritual man came to see spiritual truth from good, that is, from the Lord within him much like the celestial man saw them from the Lord within. Such a man has affection for doing good. He also sees that his anxieties are not from himself, but from an influx and communication into him of evil spirits. One can understand that the spiritual man used not only exterior Scientifics, but interior Scientifics that he learned from God's Word. You remember that God's Word had been within the celestial man, but now it was only in written form and was, thus, learned from without or through the understanding and taken into his memory. Thus, it was the understanding that was regenerated and not the will, but he could 'as it were' invite the Lord into his will where the Lord could dwell or live. And, of course, we see that the Lord did this exactly.
We can see that it is the natural mind of a man that is like a mirror in which good and truth is presented, for it is seen through the Scientifics that he gathers and places into his memory are the truth he accepts. Man had wanted to know good and evil from his 'self' and, now, he does. He can see God's image in nature and, thus, can learn what is good and true if he has developed a conscience and is guided by it.
Being able to see one's self in nature through Scientifics or knowledge learned is also like seeing an image in a mirror. Thus, one is able to reflect on things when they enter and are received through his senses. He can, thus, bring forth these things into act according to spiritual things seen or understood from the Word of truth in which he has affection for and when he does and is obedient to them, then he becomes a regenerated man. Those who are unregenerate falsities, not truths, are acted upon and evil, not good, is done. Here, again the natural of man can be made subordinate and, so, serve what is higher or what is in his interior natural mind in which those truths learned in God's Word meet with the man through his natural sensuous nature. When this happens then the man receives a true rational from the Lord and can be led by the Lord. In this, we can understand how Scientifics are as mirrors spoken of in the Word of the Divine Human which is called the Third Testament.
Nonetheless, the spiritual man fell from his spiritual state and mankind now lives in the natural state and the Church with or in him became a natural Church. The Celestial and Spiritual Churches on earth had ended. Because man lives in the natural state not knowing he lives from what is interior or higher, he thinks that he 'himself' thinks that his thoughts are his own. However, what he sees or understands is like something what he sees in a mirror, but does not release he sees only an image, and thinks it is he himself in a mirror. The natural man thinks he sees from his natural mind; this is like seeing himself in a mirror, for his natural mind does not look forward to anything, but only to his 'self', though it appears he looks forward to good and true things. But, as we have shown, it is the rational from the Lord in man that does.
Man is given freedom, both spiritual and natural freedom, thus Scientifics can either be used for or against the truths of his faith and his understanding can be raised up into higher knowledge of truth, though the man is bound to the natural and sensual in this world. As an illustration: Now, isn't it said that the Lord is in our soul giving life to us? And, doesn't it appear that we, that is, our bodies have a life all their own? Yet, it is neither the body nor the soul in the body, but it is the first of life which is God that is Life in us. Though, the appearance is that life is of the body. Thus, we are as an image in a mirror, in that our affection of truth appears to be from truth, and, so, in truth, but yet it is not from truth, but from good. So, even though a man can be raised up and see higher or internal truths, he falls back into his understanding, unless he comes to accept these truths as coming from good, that is, from God. Remember, this was the order which the celestial man was regenerated, for he was regenerated through his will, thus from God. Therefore, truth, that is, what is seen is in a mirror or through the natural and sensuous man, has no life. However, when truth, which comes from good, is seen or understood, then there is life with man. Those who have truths that come from good are those who, through Scientifics, come to know and understand spiritual truths, thus that the Lord is within and that man is because God is.
Let us see what Scientifics are since it is through them that man must now learn of God that he come into regeneration and, thus, that he is regenerated through his understanding. They are sown in the memory or in memories and, so, they can be likened to a mirror in which the images of truth appear. These are called 'faith' in a regenerated man and are called the man's interior memory. The Scientifics that come from or through the sensual of man come into his sensation and they are perceived in his natural life; his thoughts are the ground in which they are planted. Though, interior Scientifics are not in a man's sensation until he puts off the body and enters the next life. However, Scientifics enter through the senses and opens the way to interiors. Thus, they are things known and become knowledge, just as the studies of natural sciences do, so too, when knowledge of God found in the Word is studied enters the memory. There are three types of knowledge: the first is an exterior sensual scientific knowledge, the next, is an interior sensual scientific knowledge, and lastly is the intellectual scientific knowledge. These last Scientifics are represented in interior Scientifics. These are what were shown to be the Rational from the Lord in man, enabling man to apprehend or to mentally grasp and comprehend interior and intellectual Scientifics, though these are seen only through representatives. In this, the Lord is within man as we have shown. It is in this way that spiritual things enter through influx from heaven and from God. From these come conclusions and these are the intellectual Scientifics.
Scientifics are the means that a man understands the truths of the Church, the truths of faith, and that they are effected in or through him. They are apprehended by man by the sensual, thus, he must acquire them for himself. All men are born ignorant of these truths of faith, but they are found though Scientifics, apprehended, keep in the memory, and called forth by ideas from Scientifics pertaining to himself. Thus, the man today has his faith and life of charity, if he chooses to live by, through the Scientifics of the Church found in the Word of God.
However, because man, today, as we said, lives in the natural state: he has lost the science of correspondences whereby, in the past the spiritual man could use this science to learn the interior knowledge of things pertaining to God, Heaven, and man, and could be led in his regeneration and to salvation and thus to the Lord. The natural man cannot see the internal sense of the Word as God had revealed to the celestial man or even as the spiritual man came to understand through the written Ancient Word. Man, today, mostly rejects that there is an internal sense in the Word. He accepts the literal sense and thinks his spirit is, at best, dormant until he comes into the next world or spiritual world.
We have said that a man's salvation depended on the Lord's coming and in his accepting Him. And, when He did come, He revealed things or truths that were written in the Old Testament about God and Himself - His Human that He put on - that was not previously seen, especially that He came, that He was one with the Father, and that He was accomplishing that redemption and salvation. We know that a new Church was then established and was called the Christian Church. However, because man became so external he could not see the truths of the Lord and of Heaven and that the Lord said that He would come again and that man's salvation is effected. Thus, those to who He came rejected Him, except for a few who became the first Christian Church.
God in Man had come on earth. The celestial man, who had fallen from his presence, who learned and believed immediately from God these truths and, the spiritual man, who had learned these truths through the Ancient Word that was passed on from the celestial man developed their doctrines. They had looked for the Lord God to come and redeem fallen mankind. Only the natural man now remained and God through the Israelites gave another Word, though man could only understand it according to his natural state. And, they, too, learned in that Word - the Old Testament - that a Messiah would one day come on earth redeem them, though to them they saw this redemption as removing them from under the rule of any nation and placing them over all others.
Then one day the Lord did come and taught those who listened - the disciples and a few others - that His Word and He were one who had come to redeem man. And, as was said, He taught things about Himself that has been told in the Old Testament that they had not understood. We also see that Jesus spoke in proverbs or parables in which the people could not understand, though He did explain them to His disciples, and when He did, they could relate back to the Old Testament that what they had prior not understood was revealed. The Lord had established a new Church - the Christian Church - that had replaced the Israelitish Church.
The Christian has this truth revealed to him in the New Testament and, so, he learns truths. Yet, Christians are limited in their religious or spiritual knowledge in that they do not really develop religious or spiritual Scientifics that they can truly understand God's Word - how He came to redeem man and why He is to come again. How is it possible that man can come to see what the things of nature and of the world in the Word correspond to in Heaven? In other words, how can man see God, be with God not only through his natural senses, but his internal or celestial and spiritual sense since these have been closed to him? How can his thoughts be raised up into the spiritual scientific state? The New Testament does not offer this knowledge, and the knowledge learned by the Christian man from the natural or literal sense are of many different understandings and, so, there are different doctrines of faith or belief of God concerning man's salvation. As a result, most Christians are still waiting the Lord to return again on earth and to then save them.
However, even if the Lord could come again on earth, He would necessarily be manifested or born again in a natural material body. And, as we know in that state many on earth would still reject Him as they did before. No, when the Lord came on earth the first time and fought against the evils that attacked Him as a human He was victorious. These were temptations admitted into Him as any person goes through that he comes into reformation and regeneration, though with the Lord, instead of His regeneration, He glorified His Human. But, how has His glorification redeemed and saved mankind? A person still, today, gives into temptations and, he still only understands the Word in its literal sense and, so, cannot truly understand its meaning. Besides, the Lord has said He will come again to man to receive him unto Himself and that where He is they will be. The Christian knows that Lord comes again, but they do not know that when He comes it will be in another written Word as He also came in the Word of the New Testament. For, we know man did could not understand the spiritual sense of that Word, that sense in which angels and the celestial man knew Him before his fall, or even as the spiritual Church did - through the science of correspondences. So, a person remains in the fallen state in which he can only learn of God through his natural senses, through Scientifics. And, the Scientifics of spiritual things learned through the Word of God - the New Testament - was still only understood in the external sense.
Yet, Christians believe that the Lord in His first coming redeemed man, defeating the evil and, that He would come again and save them that they can be with Him where He is - in Heaven. Now, if the Lord could explain to the disciples some of the things that were hidden in the Word, then couldn't He also explain the many mysteries that still are hidden to man today? After all, He gave the Word to the Ancient Church - the spiritual man - who learned the spiritual truths. So, too, did the Lord choose a man to reveal His Word to mankind again, and we know and believe He did the New Testament.
In the Lord's First coming, He united Himself with the Divine, and He is now the Divine Human. And, as the Divine Human, He was now able to defeat the evils in the spiritual world as He defeated them in the natural world. This, He did when He came to the spiritual world and subdued and subjugated the evils in hell and brought order to the Heavens. This was the Last Judgment. This He did as it is written in the book of Revelation in the New Testament. You see, man has both a spiritual and a natural body and the spirit of man lives on in the spiritual world when his body dies, whether he is an evil or good spirit. And, as the Lord has taught that the 'spirit is strong, but the flesh week', and as Paul, in the Epistles, teaches that the fight against evils are against 'principalities, against powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts in Heavenly places'. Thus, evils had to be overcome in the spiritual world, that when man comes into the spiritual world they can no longer attacked (tempted) him as they did on earth. Otherwise, the Lord coming on earth to redeem man is not truly redemption, and man would be led astray by the evil spirits there in the spiritual world.
Thus, it is that the Lord came to the spiritual world to prepare a place for man, for man, until the Lord came there the spiritual world would come under the reign of evil spirits who then had ruled there and, as you know would even take the throne of God if it could. When the Last Judgment was accomplished, then the words 'And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other' by the Lord came to pass (Matthew 31: 24 ).
The problem is: that unless man can see in the Word the spiritual or internal sense, he cannot see and know this; just as neither could the disciples see and know that Jesus was the Lord God comes on earth unless He had revealed it to them. And, in fact, most of the world either still waits or understands God and His presences with man in different ways, and would reject Him as the world did before. Still He has come and only a few, at first, had believed. And, now, He has come again, but in a 'new' Word on earth revealing the spiritual Scientifics to all who accept it. For a person not only has freedom of will in his natural state, but spiritual freedom as well.
Today the Divine Human wants to come within man in truths and goods in a new will and understanding accommodated to man's natural understanding. It can be seen in this 'New Word' these Scientifics in a man's interior affection. The Scriptures serves as a mirror to those who have framed their mind according to the Divine will, and so, they see God. His conception of God is like mirrors in which God is seen when he knows these spiritual Scientifics now revealed in the Third Testament. It is also seen as the works of charity that serve as a mirror reflecting God in mankind.
It is within the Third Testament where it is revealed the means whereby the mysteries of the Word are opened to man's understanding. In this you can see truths in the Word are as a mirrors or Scientifics concerning of the Lord and His salvation.
End.
Because of his fallen state, a man now must 'as if' of himself learn the truths that teach him about God. Man is no longer in the state where he receives these truths immediately or directly from God as when he was in the celestial state. Man now lives in the natural state and it is now through his sensual life that he learns what is good and true, and what is evil and false. The knowledge man gains or learns and knows of God and of good and truth must now be through observation and, thus through his natural senses. What a man sees, feels, excreta, he gathers into his memory and he calls these scientific knowledge. Let us further understand what had happened to man, for there is a difference in the man today then in the man who had lived when God had created the world, who was called in the Word - Adam. For, in understanding this we can come to understand our subject: the use of or representative of Scientifics or mirrors in the Word of the Divine Human, which the Latin Word sometimes called the Third Testament. We have all been given a will and an understanding or a mind. But, God in creating man that he become made into His image and likeness, created him so that it was his will that was regenerated that he came into the celestial state and that was by inseminating into him what is called the 'good of charity'. In that way, they knew the 'truths of faith'. Those who come into the 'good of charity' come to do well or good from willing well or good. Such are of the internal Church which called the celestial Church. 'Truths of faith' are the doctrines leading to eternal life. The result of inseminating such 'good' was that a man appropriated for himself charity or love towards one another and love to God. From that there was an internal sensation in communication with the Lord God, who he called Jehovah. This was called 'perception'; the celestial man saw and the 'truths of faith in his intellectual part or in his understanding as in a mirror, thus as not being his own, but God's. From this we see that the Celestial man was of a certain geniis.
It is known that in a man's face can be seen what his affections are. This was especially true of the man who lived before falling because of sin from paradise or from his celestial state; however, today a man can conceal his real love and so it is not reflected in his face. However, in the celestial man's face could be seen God's in an image, for he had affection for God and His love flowed 'as it were' into him and in his reciprocating God's love his face reflected his love. It is in this that the Lord can be seen or known, for in a person could be seen the interior things - the good and true things of God - 'as if' in a mirror. One could see another's feeling towards them. One could see and feel 'as it were' a person's love to or for another. You can see that this is not so today, for a man sees by the light of this world, not from the light of Heaven, because, today, man's love is generally for himself and not his neighbor or even for God, unless he has been taught and led. In this, we can see man is now of a different geniis.
Anyone who has any religion today knows God did not just leave man to come to his end of his existence, that mankind ceases. God continues to reveal Himself to mankind, but not as before in celestial presence, but in other ways accommodated through natural means.
At first, God's presence continued with those who could recall, and so, live how it had been with them before their fall when man lived in that love given to him from the Lord God through the will. You see, when the celestial man lived a written language had not, yet, been developed, so the memory of God and His love was passed down through their posterity from one man to man. However, eventually the posterity of the Celestial man ended so that the man that remained was not of the same geniis. And, if not for God's love for man, mankind would have ceased all together. However, God was still present with man in those remaining goods and truth within a few of the celestial man's posterity. Man, now, through his natural senses, developed what he thought was the truth and from this he said or determined what was good. Mankind developed what is called, today, the sciences. And, as said, a written language developed.
In this, we can see those truths that the celestial man had been taught and that were later inspired by God and written down, as evidenced in the Old Testament. The results, the Ancient man could learn these truths concerning charity, but instead of being regenerated through their wills as the celestial man was, their understanding or their intellectual became regenerated. Thus, man, now, must first lean the 'truths of faith' and assimilate them that he learn what is good, think and will, and so, do it; and thus was God's grace through charity within man again. In this, a man was given a 'new' will that he come into an internal or spiritual understanding. Fallen mankind had become merely natural and no longer celestial, but through sensual Scientifics he learned what was good and true, though only because the Word of God was written down so that they could learn of God, from God Himself, though not as had been taught when man was a celestial man.
Those truths the man now learned from God were, as said, spiritual truths, not celestial, and because man learned them and lived by them, he became a spiritual man or as one who does good or charity from truth, not from love as the celestial man did. It was thus that in religious Scientifics found in that first written Word, that man could see the truths of charity. In fact, the spiritual man's doctrine was of charity, while the celestial man's was of love to God.
In that Word given to the spiritual man, a person could see or learn the correspondences between spiritual or Heavenly things with natural things of the earth. He could in that way learn the truths and goods taught by God through his natural senses. It was in such a way that the spiritual man learned of the Lord God and turned to worship Him and to look forward to His coming, and for His salvation. It was through Scientifics or the sciences that he gathered natural truths, thus he could see God's image in nature as it reflected all God's goods and truths. In the spiritual man's obedience to God's Word, he could see those truths and goods in himself as in a mirror, and so it is that Scientifics are as mirrors so that man can see God spiritually. Thus, it is that in reflecting on these things in nature according to that Word that was given to them, that had entered their mind or understanding through their senses that they could see the good of charity and, thus that God was present within them in His love.
In this, we see that the man's natural life is to become subordinate to the his spiritual life. We can see that such a man is a spiritual man in that he is obedient to his spiritual entity and not his natural desires. He brings forth these in act according to the spiritual truths that are received from God, though, now, through Scientifics his natural senses.
In time though, this Revelation of God - the Ancient Word - was lost, in which were the science of correspondences. The Ancient man no longer became regenerated and instead of truths entering falsities entered his mind and falsities acted upon, become evils. The results, the spiritual man fell or sinned just as did the celestial man. He began using the science of correspondences for personal power and gain, thus destroying them as the celestial man did the truths when he fell into the natural and sensuous state. Eventually, in this natural state, he no longer knew what natural things on earth corresponded to in Heaven, so also, did their life of charity end. Their worship of God, their life of charity was not passed on to their posterity and the things in their worship - the idols they made of various animals that represented things in their worship - were no longer known. So, man began worshipping these idols themselves as their God and in time even worshipped certain men as God. They did not know what these represented things of religion signified. Mankind had again returned to the natural and sensuous state. However, again, in some there was a remnant of truths and goods and, God again came to them in a new Word to lead and guide them, and we see that this was the Old Testament written by Moses and the prophets of Israel. This Word was written to accommodate the natural state of those that we know as the Israelites, and it did not have or reveal the correspondences as the Ancient Word before had, for mankind was now too external and would have contaminated and profaned them and would have died in hell.
It has been stated that Scientifics are like a mirror which has replaced the celestial man's ability to learn and know what is good and true from God, and thus, for him to become regenerated and, how, that it was through the will that he was regenerated. We saw also that it was through the spiritual man's understanding that he was regenerated. This, in fact, is opposite to what the Divine order was. From this we learn that the man, today, is of an entirely different geniis. The celestial man had developed 'perception', thus he knew what was good and true from within, from the Lord in his will and his understanding reflected those goods and truths of God's 'as if' being seen in a mirror. While the spiritual man developed a conscience and knew what was good and true from their conscience learned from Scientifics from the Word of God - the Ancient Word.
We learned that after man's fall he had to use his natural senses, for he had become corporeal and sensual, and through his senses he was to see or learn what was good and true or evil and false. Eventually, the celestial geniis of man ended, but before it did, before their will and understanding became completely destroyed, we saw that some of these truths and goods had remained in their memory that had been taught to them from God. These were those who had heard from others who had lived in that prime celestial state and who told about God and His love and were eventually written down by certain men chosen and inspired by God.
We learned, in the course of mankind's development, man developed a written language and those words were written and became the first written Word of God to man. Those who began to take or appropriate these words into their own understanding through their senses by reading and listening developed a religion and worshipped of God. The result was that a conscience was formed in them. Basically, it was to do no evil, but only good to one another. Thus, when thoughts came to them that were contrary to good anxieties or torments of conscience appeared. Conscience had replaced perception in man. Where, before the celestial man knew through perception immediately what was good and true from God, now the spiritual man knew indirectly or through his natural senses what was good and true (or what he thought was good and true) when he lived accordingly or in charity.
These anxieties or torments of conscience appear to be from within one's self. And those who believe and developed a religion worshipped God accordingly, are those who see themselves as in a mirror, but knows it is not one's self who he sees in the mirror, but it is a representative image either of good and truth, thus of God, if he has been led through his conscience or of evil and falsity if not. Instead of this image of good and truth being reflected in his development as it was with the celestial man, the spiritual man's will became like a mirror reflecting truth and good that comes through his senses through Scientifics learned in the Word. Here, Scientifics of the Word which enter the memory of man are like an image seen in a mirror and the man comes to realize that his life comes from God and is not from his will or soul, thus not of one's self. He, in fact, comes to understand that his will is like a mirror and that that mirror is within him and is his will. Then, isn't those Scientifics a reflection of God? And if not, then he rejects God. Thus, the spiritual man came to see spiritual truth from good, that is, from the Lord within him much like the celestial man saw them from the Lord within. Such a man has affection for doing good. He also sees that his anxieties are not from himself, but from an influx and communication into him of evil spirits. One can understand that the spiritual man used not only exterior Scientifics, but interior Scientifics that he learned from God's Word. You remember that God's Word had been within the celestial man, but now it was only in written form and was, thus, learned from without or through the understanding and taken into his memory. Thus, it was the understanding that was regenerated and not the will, but he could 'as it were' invite the Lord into his will where the Lord could dwell or live. And, of course, we see that the Lord did this exactly.
We can see that it is the natural mind of a man that is like a mirror in which good and truth is presented, for it is seen through the Scientifics that he gathers and places into his memory are the truth he accepts. Man had wanted to know good and evil from his 'self' and, now, he does. He can see God's image in nature and, thus, can learn what is good and true if he has developed a conscience and is guided by it.
Being able to see one's self in nature through Scientifics or knowledge learned is also like seeing an image in a mirror. Thus, one is able to reflect on things when they enter and are received through his senses. He can, thus, bring forth these things into act according to spiritual things seen or understood from the Word of truth in which he has affection for and when he does and is obedient to them, then he becomes a regenerated man. Those who are unregenerate falsities, not truths, are acted upon and evil, not good, is done. Here, again the natural of man can be made subordinate and, so, serve what is higher or what is in his interior natural mind in which those truths learned in God's Word meet with the man through his natural sensuous nature. When this happens then the man receives a true rational from the Lord and can be led by the Lord. In this, we can understand how Scientifics are as mirrors spoken of in the Word of the Divine Human which is called the Third Testament.
Nonetheless, the spiritual man fell from his spiritual state and mankind now lives in the natural state and the Church with or in him became a natural Church. The Celestial and Spiritual Churches on earth had ended. Because man lives in the natural state not knowing he lives from what is interior or higher, he thinks that he 'himself' thinks that his thoughts are his own. However, what he sees or understands is like something what he sees in a mirror, but does not release he sees only an image, and thinks it is he himself in a mirror. The natural man thinks he sees from his natural mind; this is like seeing himself in a mirror, for his natural mind does not look forward to anything, but only to his 'self', though it appears he looks forward to good and true things. But, as we have shown, it is the rational from the Lord in man that does.
Man is given freedom, both spiritual and natural freedom, thus Scientifics can either be used for or against the truths of his faith and his understanding can be raised up into higher knowledge of truth, though the man is bound to the natural and sensual in this world. As an illustration: Now, isn't it said that the Lord is in our soul giving life to us? And, doesn't it appear that we, that is, our bodies have a life all their own? Yet, it is neither the body nor the soul in the body, but it is the first of life which is God that is Life in us. Though, the appearance is that life is of the body. Thus, we are as an image in a mirror, in that our affection of truth appears to be from truth, and, so, in truth, but yet it is not from truth, but from good. So, even though a man can be raised up and see higher or internal truths, he falls back into his understanding, unless he comes to accept these truths as coming from good, that is, from God. Remember, this was the order which the celestial man was regenerated, for he was regenerated through his will, thus from God. Therefore, truth, that is, what is seen is in a mirror or through the natural and sensuous man, has no life. However, when truth, which comes from good, is seen or understood, then there is life with man. Those who have truths that come from good are those who, through Scientifics, come to know and understand spiritual truths, thus that the Lord is within and that man is because God is.
Let us see what Scientifics are since it is through them that man must now learn of God that he come into regeneration and, thus, that he is regenerated through his understanding. They are sown in the memory or in memories and, so, they can be likened to a mirror in which the images of truth appear. These are called 'faith' in a regenerated man and are called the man's interior memory. The Scientifics that come from or through the sensual of man come into his sensation and they are perceived in his natural life; his thoughts are the ground in which they are planted. Though, interior Scientifics are not in a man's sensation until he puts off the body and enters the next life. However, Scientifics enter through the senses and opens the way to interiors. Thus, they are things known and become knowledge, just as the studies of natural sciences do, so too, when knowledge of God found in the Word is studied enters the memory. There are three types of knowledge: the first is an exterior sensual scientific knowledge, the next, is an interior sensual scientific knowledge, and lastly is the intellectual scientific knowledge. These last Scientifics are represented in interior Scientifics. These are what were shown to be the Rational from the Lord in man, enabling man to apprehend or to mentally grasp and comprehend interior and intellectual Scientifics, though these are seen only through representatives. In this, the Lord is within man as we have shown. It is in this way that spiritual things enter through influx from heaven and from God. From these come conclusions and these are the intellectual Scientifics.
Scientifics are the means that a man understands the truths of the Church, the truths of faith, and that they are effected in or through him. They are apprehended by man by the sensual, thus, he must acquire them for himself. All men are born ignorant of these truths of faith, but they are found though Scientifics, apprehended, keep in the memory, and called forth by ideas from Scientifics pertaining to himself. Thus, the man today has his faith and life of charity, if he chooses to live by, through the Scientifics of the Church found in the Word of God.
However, because man, today, as we said, lives in the natural state: he has lost the science of correspondences whereby, in the past the spiritual man could use this science to learn the interior knowledge of things pertaining to God, Heaven, and man, and could be led in his regeneration and to salvation and thus to the Lord. The natural man cannot see the internal sense of the Word as God had revealed to the celestial man or even as the spiritual man came to understand through the written Ancient Word. Man, today, mostly rejects that there is an internal sense in the Word. He accepts the literal sense and thinks his spirit is, at best, dormant until he comes into the next world or spiritual world.
We have said that a man's salvation depended on the Lord's coming and in his accepting Him. And, when He did come, He revealed things or truths that were written in the Old Testament about God and Himself - His Human that He put on - that was not previously seen, especially that He came, that He was one with the Father, and that He was accomplishing that redemption and salvation. We know that a new Church was then established and was called the Christian Church. However, because man became so external he could not see the truths of the Lord and of Heaven and that the Lord said that He would come again and that man's salvation is effected. Thus, those to who He came rejected Him, except for a few who became the first Christian Church.
God in Man had come on earth. The celestial man, who had fallen from his presence, who learned and believed immediately from God these truths and, the spiritual man, who had learned these truths through the Ancient Word that was passed on from the celestial man developed their doctrines. They had looked for the Lord God to come and redeem fallen mankind. Only the natural man now remained and God through the Israelites gave another Word, though man could only understand it according to his natural state. And, they, too, learned in that Word - the Old Testament - that a Messiah would one day come on earth redeem them, though to them they saw this redemption as removing them from under the rule of any nation and placing them over all others.
Then one day the Lord did come and taught those who listened - the disciples and a few others - that His Word and He were one who had come to redeem man. And, as was said, He taught things about Himself that has been told in the Old Testament that they had not understood. We also see that Jesus spoke in proverbs or parables in which the people could not understand, though He did explain them to His disciples, and when He did, they could relate back to the Old Testament that what they had prior not understood was revealed. The Lord had established a new Church - the Christian Church - that had replaced the Israelitish Church.
The Christian has this truth revealed to him in the New Testament and, so, he learns truths. Yet, Christians are limited in their religious or spiritual knowledge in that they do not really develop religious or spiritual Scientifics that they can truly understand God's Word - how He came to redeem man and why He is to come again. How is it possible that man can come to see what the things of nature and of the world in the Word correspond to in Heaven? In other words, how can man see God, be with God not only through his natural senses, but his internal or celestial and spiritual sense since these have been closed to him? How can his thoughts be raised up into the spiritual scientific state? The New Testament does not offer this knowledge, and the knowledge learned by the Christian man from the natural or literal sense are of many different understandings and, so, there are different doctrines of faith or belief of God concerning man's salvation. As a result, most Christians are still waiting the Lord to return again on earth and to then save them.
However, even if the Lord could come again on earth, He would necessarily be manifested or born again in a natural material body. And, as we know in that state many on earth would still reject Him as they did before. No, when the Lord came on earth the first time and fought against the evils that attacked Him as a human He was victorious. These were temptations admitted into Him as any person goes through that he comes into reformation and regeneration, though with the Lord, instead of His regeneration, He glorified His Human. But, how has His glorification redeemed and saved mankind? A person still, today, gives into temptations and, he still only understands the Word in its literal sense and, so, cannot truly understand its meaning. Besides, the Lord has said He will come again to man to receive him unto Himself and that where He is they will be. The Christian knows that Lord comes again, but they do not know that when He comes it will be in another written Word as He also came in the Word of the New Testament. For, we know man did could not understand the spiritual sense of that Word, that sense in which angels and the celestial man knew Him before his fall, or even as the spiritual Church did - through the science of correspondences. So, a person remains in the fallen state in which he can only learn of God through his natural senses, through Scientifics. And, the Scientifics of spiritual things learned through the Word of God - the New Testament - was still only understood in the external sense.
Yet, Christians believe that the Lord in His first coming redeemed man, defeating the evil and, that He would come again and save them that they can be with Him where He is - in Heaven. Now, if the Lord could explain to the disciples some of the things that were hidden in the Word, then couldn't He also explain the many mysteries that still are hidden to man today? After all, He gave the Word to the Ancient Church - the spiritual man - who learned the spiritual truths. So, too, did the Lord choose a man to reveal His Word to mankind again, and we know and believe He did the New Testament.
In the Lord's First coming, He united Himself with the Divine, and He is now the Divine Human. And, as the Divine Human, He was now able to defeat the evils in the spiritual world as He defeated them in the natural world. This, He did when He came to the spiritual world and subdued and subjugated the evils in hell and brought order to the Heavens. This was the Last Judgment. This He did as it is written in the book of Revelation in the New Testament. You see, man has both a spiritual and a natural body and the spirit of man lives on in the spiritual world when his body dies, whether he is an evil or good spirit. And, as the Lord has taught that the 'spirit is strong, but the flesh week', and as Paul, in the Epistles, teaches that the fight against evils are against 'principalities, against powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts in Heavenly places'. Thus, evils had to be overcome in the spiritual world, that when man comes into the spiritual world they can no longer attacked (tempted) him as they did on earth. Otherwise, the Lord coming on earth to redeem man is not truly redemption, and man would be led astray by the evil spirits there in the spiritual world.
Thus, it is that the Lord came to the spiritual world to prepare a place for man, for man, until the Lord came there the spiritual world would come under the reign of evil spirits who then had ruled there and, as you know would even take the throne of God if it could. When the Last Judgment was accomplished, then the words 'And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other' by the Lord came to pass (Matthew 31: 24 ).
The problem is: that unless man can see in the Word the spiritual or internal sense, he cannot see and know this; just as neither could the disciples see and know that Jesus was the Lord God comes on earth unless He had revealed it to them. And, in fact, most of the world either still waits or understands God and His presences with man in different ways, and would reject Him as the world did before. Still He has come and only a few, at first, had believed. And, now, He has come again, but in a 'new' Word on earth revealing the spiritual Scientifics to all who accept it. For a person not only has freedom of will in his natural state, but spiritual freedom as well.
Today the Divine Human wants to come within man in truths and goods in a new will and understanding accommodated to man's natural understanding. It can be seen in this 'New Word' these Scientifics in a man's interior affection. The Scriptures serves as a mirror to those who have framed their mind according to the Divine will, and so, they see God. His conception of God is like mirrors in which God is seen when he knows these spiritual Scientifics now revealed in the Third Testament. It is also seen as the works of charity that serve as a mirror reflecting God in mankind.
It is within the Third Testament where it is revealed the means whereby the mysteries of the Word are opened to man's understanding. In this you can see truths in the Word are as a mirrors or Scientifics concerning of the Lord and His salvation.
End.
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