The Establishment of a
Spiritual Life with Mankind - Part 5
By Rev. Paul Booth
Spiritual Life with Mankind - Part 5
By Rev. Paul Booth
Like the Most Ancient Church the Ancient Church was also spoken of from various different viewpoints in the Word. So, in the eleventh chapter, we get another point of view explaining its existence from it greatness to its decline into falsities, which is explained in the story of the Tower of Babel. The Ancient Church had one underlying doctrine; that doctrine was of charity. However, that Church had begun to turn back from its charity, that is, to turn from the Lord and their worship became unclean and profaned, even, their life.
"And the whole earth was of one lip, and their words were one, And it came to pass when they journeyed from the East, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar, and there they dwelt there" (Gen. 11:1,2).
Then, they began, having turned away from the Lord, like the celestial Church had, so that all that what they knew from Him became false, for what comes from man who turns away form the Lord is nothing but false. This led them into evil from the love of self.
"And they said, a man to his fellow, Come, let us make bricks for stone, and bitumen had they for mortar" (Gen. 11: 3).
You will know that 'stone' means, in many places in the Word, 'truth', such as when the Lord spoke of Himself as being the Truth and in parables concerning truth where 'stone' is mentioned. In this way, they framed a doctrine and a worship in which they would have dominion over the things that are of Heaven, as if truth came from them and not from the Lord. The idea they strove towards was 'to gain power and to have dominance', and they wanted the reputation of having 'great knowledge'. You can understand how their doctrine became false and there worship profaned. They, themselves, had come into this state of evil. It was not the Lord's doing. We read.
"And Jehovah came down to see the city &…; ." Jehovah is everywhere present; He did not come down, but what is signified is a Judgment, for it is an evil state that brings judgement upon man. As a result, internal worship perished from the Ancient Church. Thus, this brings us to the end of the first state of the Ancient Church, which, as we have said was signified in Shem and, now, in the second, as we, also, have said, was in Eber, which became known as the Hebrew nation. In Eber's posterity we come across the names of Nahor, Terah, Abram who became Abraham, and Haran names that today are well known by generally those in the Jewish and Christian Churches. From the Word, we learn that Terah, the father of Abram, worshipped idols. We read in the book of Joshua, "Joshua said unto all the people, Thus hath said Jehovah the God of Israel Your father of Abraham, and the father of Nabor, and they served other gods" (24:2).
The result of the ending of their internal worship prevented mankind from forever destroying the truth within him. Now, in external worship, truth was represented by the things of the Lord and of His Kingdom allows the presence of the Lord with mankind, even though man has become unaware of their meaning. A man does not know of the correspondences that had earlier been the science of all sciences with the Ancient Church and which had brought the Ancient Church into such a beautiful state of charity toward the neighbor.
This brings us to the story of Abram being 'called out' of the land of his fathers and from his father's house into a new life and doctrine, where only one God became worshipped Jehovah. The Ancient Church again called on the name of Jehovah. Each historical fact is representative of true and good things and each word is significative of the Lord. It is in this Ancient Church that there lie hidden arcana that if known and believed teach the genuine truth. That if believed, that is, if used to teach and to lead man to the Lord, there is revealed an entirely new and spiritual sense and that from such an understanding of truth, when followed, the Lord's good works are within. Abram becomes seen as the Lord when as an infant and a child in the world, for as we said, words are significatives and histories are representatives. Then, it is that, Isaac signifies the Lord's Spiritual and Jacob, in general, the Lord's Natural. However, by this time, the Church became a Church only outwardly and so representatively, having no internal worship at all.
We have said that the Ancient Church was instructed by truths and goods that had been collected by Enoch, but in time these became corrupted and the science of correspondences was lost to them. They, however, because of, now, having only external respiration a voice developed and a written language and, so, they wrote their made-up histories as is evident in Moses writing the book Genesis. Evidence of that Word's existence is seen in the Old Testament and explained in the Third Testament. There, we read of such books as "The Wars of Jehovah" and the "Books of Prophetic Enumeration's". The difference in the internal of the Most Ancient Church and the Ancient Church is seen in 'love to the Lord' and 'love towards the neighbor'. They the Ancient Church could not come into charity except through the truths of faith. As such, they would discuss as to whether something was true or not.
As they deteriorated from love to the neighbor or from charity, they gradually lost the science of correspondences and knew nothing of the representatives and signifactives. Before they had worshipped the Lord, all the rituals represented the Lord. Many knew He would come into the world and they worshipped His Divine Human. Something that is not seen until it is revealed to man in the Word of the Divine Human or in the Third Testament.
A Church is called spiritual when it acts from charity. This Church was not made into a likeness, but was formed into an image of the Lord and was, thus, a Church of love towards the neighbor. The Lord has said 'I am the true vine'. The spiritual Church is reformed, as man's intellectual is separate from the voluntary or the will, and in this way, a new will and understanding is formed in man. It is through truth that man is reformed and becomes spiritual, but it is not just man having knowledge, but when the truth is acknowledged or done that man's spiritual or internal is open, as it were, in him.
So, you can see the Ancient Church's death coming when the Philistines stopped up the "wells of waters of Abraham". Well, of course, represented the Word of the Ancient Church. Here, we can see evidence still remaining of the Ancient Church when Isaac returned and "digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham. His father". Isaac represented the Lord as to His Divine Rational (26: 8).
By this time the truths of the Ancient Church were quite obliterated. The representatives and signification, which the Ancient knew, which was of the Lord Himself, was lost. Thus, today, unless these correspondences are again learned, nothing is known of the Lord, except as it is seen in the natural sense. The man of the Church remains only in representative and in his external or natural unaware of what lies within his mind and soul. Even as the wells of truth have been filled with dust and the 'waters' of truth lay stopped up, and hidden as it were, unless man opens them up.
"And the whole earth was of one lip, and their words were one, And it came to pass when they journeyed from the East, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar, and there they dwelt there" (Gen. 11:1,2).
Then, they began, having turned away from the Lord, like the celestial Church had, so that all that what they knew from Him became false, for what comes from man who turns away form the Lord is nothing but false. This led them into evil from the love of self.
"And they said, a man to his fellow, Come, let us make bricks for stone, and bitumen had they for mortar" (Gen. 11: 3).
You will know that 'stone' means, in many places in the Word, 'truth', such as when the Lord spoke of Himself as being the Truth and in parables concerning truth where 'stone' is mentioned. In this way, they framed a doctrine and a worship in which they would have dominion over the things that are of Heaven, as if truth came from them and not from the Lord. The idea they strove towards was 'to gain power and to have dominance', and they wanted the reputation of having 'great knowledge'. You can understand how their doctrine became false and there worship profaned. They, themselves, had come into this state of evil. It was not the Lord's doing. We read.
"And Jehovah came down to see the city &…; ." Jehovah is everywhere present; He did not come down, but what is signified is a Judgment, for it is an evil state that brings judgement upon man. As a result, internal worship perished from the Ancient Church. Thus, this brings us to the end of the first state of the Ancient Church, which, as we have said was signified in Shem and, now, in the second, as we, also, have said, was in Eber, which became known as the Hebrew nation. In Eber's posterity we come across the names of Nahor, Terah, Abram who became Abraham, and Haran names that today are well known by generally those in the Jewish and Christian Churches. From the Word, we learn that Terah, the father of Abram, worshipped idols. We read in the book of Joshua, "Joshua said unto all the people, Thus hath said Jehovah the God of Israel Your father of Abraham, and the father of Nabor, and they served other gods" (24:2).
The result of the ending of their internal worship prevented mankind from forever destroying the truth within him. Now, in external worship, truth was represented by the things of the Lord and of His Kingdom allows the presence of the Lord with mankind, even though man has become unaware of their meaning. A man does not know of the correspondences that had earlier been the science of all sciences with the Ancient Church and which had brought the Ancient Church into such a beautiful state of charity toward the neighbor.
This brings us to the story of Abram being 'called out' of the land of his fathers and from his father's house into a new life and doctrine, where only one God became worshipped Jehovah. The Ancient Church again called on the name of Jehovah. Each historical fact is representative of true and good things and each word is significative of the Lord. It is in this Ancient Church that there lie hidden arcana that if known and believed teach the genuine truth. That if believed, that is, if used to teach and to lead man to the Lord, there is revealed an entirely new and spiritual sense and that from such an understanding of truth, when followed, the Lord's good works are within. Abram becomes seen as the Lord when as an infant and a child in the world, for as we said, words are significatives and histories are representatives. Then, it is that, Isaac signifies the Lord's Spiritual and Jacob, in general, the Lord's Natural. However, by this time, the Church became a Church only outwardly and so representatively, having no internal worship at all.
We have said that the Ancient Church was instructed by truths and goods that had been collected by Enoch, but in time these became corrupted and the science of correspondences was lost to them. They, however, because of, now, having only external respiration a voice developed and a written language and, so, they wrote their made-up histories as is evident in Moses writing the book Genesis. Evidence of that Word's existence is seen in the Old Testament and explained in the Third Testament. There, we read of such books as "The Wars of Jehovah" and the "Books of Prophetic Enumeration's". The difference in the internal of the Most Ancient Church and the Ancient Church is seen in 'love to the Lord' and 'love towards the neighbor'. They the Ancient Church could not come into charity except through the truths of faith. As such, they would discuss as to whether something was true or not.
As they deteriorated from love to the neighbor or from charity, they gradually lost the science of correspondences and knew nothing of the representatives and signifactives. Before they had worshipped the Lord, all the rituals represented the Lord. Many knew He would come into the world and they worshipped His Divine Human. Something that is not seen until it is revealed to man in the Word of the Divine Human or in the Third Testament.
A Church is called spiritual when it acts from charity. This Church was not made into a likeness, but was formed into an image of the Lord and was, thus, a Church of love towards the neighbor. The Lord has said 'I am the true vine'. The spiritual Church is reformed, as man's intellectual is separate from the voluntary or the will, and in this way, a new will and understanding is formed in man. It is through truth that man is reformed and becomes spiritual, but it is not just man having knowledge, but when the truth is acknowledged or done that man's spiritual or internal is open, as it were, in him.
So, you can see the Ancient Church's death coming when the Philistines stopped up the "wells of waters of Abraham". Well, of course, represented the Word of the Ancient Church. Here, we can see evidence still remaining of the Ancient Church when Isaac returned and "digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham. His father". Isaac represented the Lord as to His Divine Rational (26: 8).
By this time the truths of the Ancient Church were quite obliterated. The representatives and signification, which the Ancient knew, which was of the Lord Himself, was lost. Thus, today, unless these correspondences are again learned, nothing is known of the Lord, except as it is seen in the natural sense. The man of the Church remains only in representative and in his external or natural unaware of what lies within his mind and soul. Even as the wells of truth have been filled with dust and the 'waters' of truth lay stopped up, and hidden as it were, unless man opens them up.