The White Horse and its Rider as read in the book of Revelation (3) The Internal or Spiritual Sense of the Word Revealed
Our study of doctrine continues in the following verses.
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and His name was called the WORD OF GOD. And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Revelation 19: 12,13, 14)
It has been shown that the 'white horse and its rider' is understood the Word coming from Heaven and that it judges what is good from evil. It is in this respect that the Lord who come as the Word, both to judge and to teach and to lead man on earth. A student of the written Word who believes the Lord will accept the text as speaking of when the Lord comes again and knows and believes that the very text that he reads is the Word come to man from God. Thus, one accepts and learns that the Word, because it is the Divine Truth, has power to save. There are many qualities that are revealed in the text of the 'White horse and its Rider' found in Revelation 19: 11-14, 16 concerning the Lord some of which we have already shown. These are all qualities of the Lord in His Divine Human qualities of the risen and glorified Lord. One such is what we read here about the Lord. 'His eyes (are) as a flame of fire'. Now, we must know that the eyes are used to see and in seeing, it is that one comes to some understanding, and that it is the understanding that leads man to the truths of faith. Now, the Lord, who is seen depicted here, has eyes as a 'flame of fire'. Of all the qualities represented by 'a flame of fire' the one that portrays the Lord best is His 'love', for isn't it 'fire' or 'love' that warms one within even as the flames of the sun warm the earth and brings forth life? Then, too, doesn't love give one a quality of seeming warm or a good feeling? So, this quality is seen in the Word and id seen as the Lord, the Lord who is Divine, and signifies the Divine Word as bringing love to man. Here, the quality we see is Divine Truth coming from Divine Good.
Because, the Word, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ became the Divine Human, He was crowned 'as it were' as a King over the Heavenly Kingdoms. The Lord was faithful to the Divine or to His Father within, thus He was faithful to the Truth and the Good, which comes from God to man, and thus, to the Lord's Natural Human. Therefore, we see the 'crowns' on the Lord's head as signifying all goods and truths of faith, for the Kingdom of Heaven is of those who have received good and truth. So, let us, here, learn what these are. When one has faith he has it because of the truths he has found in the Word from the Lord and because he has believed these truths. Some of the truths reveal in the Word are those qualities of the Lord that we have shown, as such, we know that the Lord is all Good and Truth. Other truths in the Word, of course, teach man how to become reformed and regenerated and, so, he knows he is to love and do good, which is to be obedient to the Commandments. One can see, here, that the prior truths are for the understanding, and that the latter truths are for the will, that is, for one to know and to follow.
Here is another quality of the Lord, that is, of the Word. Let us read about this quality. "And He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself." A person's name, in the Word, means various qualities, such as, Peter means 'stone' and Emanuel means 'God with us'. By 'written which no one knew' refers to what is hidden just as is the spiritual sense of the Word within the external or natural sense hidden, even as the Lord has both a Spiritual and a Celestial within His Natural. He has a Natural Human as well as does mankind. These qualities within man, of course, come from the Divine, the Celestial being of Love and the Spiritual being of Truth. It is the internal sense of the Word that truly is the genuine truth. The external is just an apparent truth. Thus, one sees, here, that the coming again of the Lord to earth is in Truth and in Word and not in person. Even in the text it is said that what comes from Heaven is called the Word of God and is the Divine Truth.
The question arises, why does another Word from God need to come again? Isn't the truth revealed in the Old and New Testaments sufficient? Of course, but as it is here, the Word is known in its sense of the letter and this hardly understood and mostly misunderstood even as our text is. Besides, such fallacies and falsities are from the thoughts of those who believe that what they read and know from 'self' is thought to be true, however we know from man that no good comes, therefore, no truth, except he be enlightened. Take our present text as an example. We read, "He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood". Since, we have shown that it is the Word that we are talking about, why is it depicted as being covered with blood and if as in a battle? This can be answered is this way. It is the Lord who, as the Truth, or the Word, that was cruelly treated, despised, whipped, and hung on the cross to die. Yet, also, hadn't the Word been treated likewise and is even treated so today without respect?
Thus, we see that when the Lord comes again He so appears. Now, it was to the natural state that the Lord first came and was rejected by the Israelitish Church. Not only that, but they also had rejected the Word, thus doing violence to it, even as they rejected the Lord, which the Word has spoken of, even as He has said that they had made the Word of no respect. You can see that 'blood' signifies that violence done in an attempt to kill, and here, it is the natural sense of the Word that has been so cruelly disregarded and treated and, so, damages one's own natural understanding, so that one's understanding is distorted as to the genuine truth. This can be seen in the fact that it is the vesture that is bloodied. The inner garments are 'white and clean' such is the internal sense of the Word. It is not difficult to understand that because it is the outer vesture covering the Lord in He coming again, that it signifies the covering of the internal sense of the Word. Also, consider what is an external without an internal? It is nothing. It is as a man without a spirit and without life. It is 'as it were' a statue void of life.
If the Lord has been so treated in His Coming in the flesh and if He is the Truth, that is, the Word, than hasn't the Word, in its external or natural sense been make false with man? Yet, has the Word went out to mankind and been of no effect at all? Has the Lord's Coming failed to change one person? Any true Christian will say that because of the Lord's coming the Christian Church has been established and that there are those who have not rejected the Lord, that the Word has been of some good effect that it has not returned void. There are those who are with the Lord in Heaven. These are those who follow him, that is, who believe and follow His teaching in the Word, as we see following the Lord out of Heaven.
Let us continue reading our text. "And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean". I think that anyone who reads the Word with a desire to know the Lord and his truths come to see in it a battle of evil against good, of false against truth. It is depicted 'as it were' as a battle for man's soul. The Lord is often depicted as coming to fight against evil and to save us so that we come to live in His Kingdom of Heaven. Our text is one such place where the Lord is seen coming to save. In the history of the Israelites there are several stories about the 'Host (or the Armies) of Jehovah' fighting against their enemies. 'Heavenly Host' signifies the Lord's armies.
Any Christian will, also, say that it is the Truth that fights and that frees one from captivity to evils and lies. However, if that truth has been falsified with man, then how can he become free? If the Word that is known, that is, if knowing its natural sense has freed man from slavery to falsities and evils or if the Lord's first coming has truly saved man, as so many claim, then why are so many today waiting for His return to come and overcome these evils that are still on earth and with man?
To answer this, first, there are two aspects of the Lord's coming. One as has been already mentioned. It is in judgment that the Lord comes; of course, it is the Word and the Truth that judges us, here, on earth. The second reason He comes is to enter a man's heart and mind 'as it were', his will and understanding and, thus, to conjoin man with Him, which can be understood as the Lord's abode with man. This, He had said to His disciples and to us. "If a man loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Now, the first coming can be only possible in the spiritual sense. This needs further explanation. The only place where all people who were born on earth and have died can come to a Last Judgement is not in this world where man lives in his natural state, but is in the spiritual world. For, all who have died, if they were raise from the grave and returned again on earth with their bodies, there would not be enough room for them if the Last Judgment is to be in the natural state. On the other hand, all the spirits of men that have ever lived are in the spiritual world. And, so, it is in the spiritual world where the Lord comes to and judges all, both good and evil.
However, in the second reason for the Lord's return He comes to those, here, on earth into their understanding and into their will in truth and love, in faith and charity, through the written Word. Thus, it is that the Lord comes again on earth, not in person, but in Truth or in Word. The armies following the Lord out of Heaven are those who are in the understanding of the Word as to its interiors. They signify those who are in the truths and goods of Heaven, those who, at the Last Judgment, had entered the Lord's Heavenly Kingdom. This is why they are seen on 'white horses and closed in white linen'. They signify the understanding of interior truths, truths which origin is from the celestial. Thus, it is truth from good that enters one's understanding and his will. That is why the Word comes again to earth to man in order to fight the evils and overcome the falsities in man. And, it is in its internal or spiritual sense that the Word comes and is revealed to those who become enlightened. As has been said, the battle is a spiritual battle of truths against falsities. And, this requires more than the admittance of truths into a person's understanding, but come as an army of truths 'as it were' all coordinated, and is as such, the doctrine of faith as regards rational things. That 'armies and hosts' signify truths is revealed all throughout the Word. In Daniel we read,
"The one [little] horn of the he-goat grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the host of Heaven, and cast down to earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. It drew itself up, even towards the prince of the hosts. His host was set over the continual [burnt offering] on account of the transgression, and cast down truth to the earth. I heard a holy one speaking, He said, For how long is this vision, the continual burnt offering, and the desolating transgressions, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden own?" (8: 9-13).
This, of course, was Daniel's dream. It describes the army of falsities moving against God's army of truths and, if the falsities could, they would have overcome even Heavenly truths and the Lord Himself, that is, the Divine Truth its self. One can understand by 'casting down the truth' to earth as truth being made false with man, for that is what man has done with God's truths.
Armies of the Lord signify spiritual truths; these constitute one's faith or the doctrine of faith in man. Spiritual truths in a man are forms of good when a man leads his lives according to those truths. So, since the armies in the test follow the Lord out of Heaven, it is the spiritual Church that is here meant, and also all those who are in regeneration, For, the truths of faith comes from the Divine Truth, that is, from the Lord and not from man. It is in these truths good is within such a person. As an example, the Israelites were to come out of Egypt according to their armies. In the spiritual sense, it is meant coming out of conflicts with falsities and, thus, they 'as it were' performed military spiritual service. One can see here why the Word refers to the Church as being militant and victorious in battle.
So, from the text of the 'white horse and its Rider' we see the spiritual sense of the Word revealed in a new Revelation, in a new Word that is now descending to earth for man.
End.
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and His name was called the WORD OF GOD. And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Revelation 19: 12,13, 14)
It has been shown that the 'white horse and its rider' is understood the Word coming from Heaven and that it judges what is good from evil. It is in this respect that the Lord who come as the Word, both to judge and to teach and to lead man on earth. A student of the written Word who believes the Lord will accept the text as speaking of when the Lord comes again and knows and believes that the very text that he reads is the Word come to man from God. Thus, one accepts and learns that the Word, because it is the Divine Truth, has power to save. There are many qualities that are revealed in the text of the 'White horse and its Rider' found in Revelation 19: 11-14, 16 concerning the Lord some of which we have already shown. These are all qualities of the Lord in His Divine Human qualities of the risen and glorified Lord. One such is what we read here about the Lord. 'His eyes (are) as a flame of fire'. Now, we must know that the eyes are used to see and in seeing, it is that one comes to some understanding, and that it is the understanding that leads man to the truths of faith. Now, the Lord, who is seen depicted here, has eyes as a 'flame of fire'. Of all the qualities represented by 'a flame of fire' the one that portrays the Lord best is His 'love', for isn't it 'fire' or 'love' that warms one within even as the flames of the sun warm the earth and brings forth life? Then, too, doesn't love give one a quality of seeming warm or a good feeling? So, this quality is seen in the Word and id seen as the Lord, the Lord who is Divine, and signifies the Divine Word as bringing love to man. Here, the quality we see is Divine Truth coming from Divine Good.
Because, the Word, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ became the Divine Human, He was crowned 'as it were' as a King over the Heavenly Kingdoms. The Lord was faithful to the Divine or to His Father within, thus He was faithful to the Truth and the Good, which comes from God to man, and thus, to the Lord's Natural Human. Therefore, we see the 'crowns' on the Lord's head as signifying all goods and truths of faith, for the Kingdom of Heaven is of those who have received good and truth. So, let us, here, learn what these are. When one has faith he has it because of the truths he has found in the Word from the Lord and because he has believed these truths. Some of the truths reveal in the Word are those qualities of the Lord that we have shown, as such, we know that the Lord is all Good and Truth. Other truths in the Word, of course, teach man how to become reformed and regenerated and, so, he knows he is to love and do good, which is to be obedient to the Commandments. One can see, here, that the prior truths are for the understanding, and that the latter truths are for the will, that is, for one to know and to follow.
Here is another quality of the Lord, that is, of the Word. Let us read about this quality. "And He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself." A person's name, in the Word, means various qualities, such as, Peter means 'stone' and Emanuel means 'God with us'. By 'written which no one knew' refers to what is hidden just as is the spiritual sense of the Word within the external or natural sense hidden, even as the Lord has both a Spiritual and a Celestial within His Natural. He has a Natural Human as well as does mankind. These qualities within man, of course, come from the Divine, the Celestial being of Love and the Spiritual being of Truth. It is the internal sense of the Word that truly is the genuine truth. The external is just an apparent truth. Thus, one sees, here, that the coming again of the Lord to earth is in Truth and in Word and not in person. Even in the text it is said that what comes from Heaven is called the Word of God and is the Divine Truth.
The question arises, why does another Word from God need to come again? Isn't the truth revealed in the Old and New Testaments sufficient? Of course, but as it is here, the Word is known in its sense of the letter and this hardly understood and mostly misunderstood even as our text is. Besides, such fallacies and falsities are from the thoughts of those who believe that what they read and know from 'self' is thought to be true, however we know from man that no good comes, therefore, no truth, except he be enlightened. Take our present text as an example. We read, "He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood". Since, we have shown that it is the Word that we are talking about, why is it depicted as being covered with blood and if as in a battle? This can be answered is this way. It is the Lord who, as the Truth, or the Word, that was cruelly treated, despised, whipped, and hung on the cross to die. Yet, also, hadn't the Word been treated likewise and is even treated so today without respect?
Thus, we see that when the Lord comes again He so appears. Now, it was to the natural state that the Lord first came and was rejected by the Israelitish Church. Not only that, but they also had rejected the Word, thus doing violence to it, even as they rejected the Lord, which the Word has spoken of, even as He has said that they had made the Word of no respect. You can see that 'blood' signifies that violence done in an attempt to kill, and here, it is the natural sense of the Word that has been so cruelly disregarded and treated and, so, damages one's own natural understanding, so that one's understanding is distorted as to the genuine truth. This can be seen in the fact that it is the vesture that is bloodied. The inner garments are 'white and clean' such is the internal sense of the Word. It is not difficult to understand that because it is the outer vesture covering the Lord in He coming again, that it signifies the covering of the internal sense of the Word. Also, consider what is an external without an internal? It is nothing. It is as a man without a spirit and without life. It is 'as it were' a statue void of life.
If the Lord has been so treated in His Coming in the flesh and if He is the Truth, that is, the Word, than hasn't the Word, in its external or natural sense been make false with man? Yet, has the Word went out to mankind and been of no effect at all? Has the Lord's Coming failed to change one person? Any true Christian will say that because of the Lord's coming the Christian Church has been established and that there are those who have not rejected the Lord, that the Word has been of some good effect that it has not returned void. There are those who are with the Lord in Heaven. These are those who follow him, that is, who believe and follow His teaching in the Word, as we see following the Lord out of Heaven.
Let us continue reading our text. "And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean". I think that anyone who reads the Word with a desire to know the Lord and his truths come to see in it a battle of evil against good, of false against truth. It is depicted 'as it were' as a battle for man's soul. The Lord is often depicted as coming to fight against evil and to save us so that we come to live in His Kingdom of Heaven. Our text is one such place where the Lord is seen coming to save. In the history of the Israelites there are several stories about the 'Host (or the Armies) of Jehovah' fighting against their enemies. 'Heavenly Host' signifies the Lord's armies.
Any Christian will, also, say that it is the Truth that fights and that frees one from captivity to evils and lies. However, if that truth has been falsified with man, then how can he become free? If the Word that is known, that is, if knowing its natural sense has freed man from slavery to falsities and evils or if the Lord's first coming has truly saved man, as so many claim, then why are so many today waiting for His return to come and overcome these evils that are still on earth and with man?
To answer this, first, there are two aspects of the Lord's coming. One as has been already mentioned. It is in judgment that the Lord comes; of course, it is the Word and the Truth that judges us, here, on earth. The second reason He comes is to enter a man's heart and mind 'as it were', his will and understanding and, thus, to conjoin man with Him, which can be understood as the Lord's abode with man. This, He had said to His disciples and to us. "If a man loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Now, the first coming can be only possible in the spiritual sense. This needs further explanation. The only place where all people who were born on earth and have died can come to a Last Judgement is not in this world where man lives in his natural state, but is in the spiritual world. For, all who have died, if they were raise from the grave and returned again on earth with their bodies, there would not be enough room for them if the Last Judgment is to be in the natural state. On the other hand, all the spirits of men that have ever lived are in the spiritual world. And, so, it is in the spiritual world where the Lord comes to and judges all, both good and evil.
However, in the second reason for the Lord's return He comes to those, here, on earth into their understanding and into their will in truth and love, in faith and charity, through the written Word. Thus, it is that the Lord comes again on earth, not in person, but in Truth or in Word. The armies following the Lord out of Heaven are those who are in the understanding of the Word as to its interiors. They signify those who are in the truths and goods of Heaven, those who, at the Last Judgment, had entered the Lord's Heavenly Kingdom. This is why they are seen on 'white horses and closed in white linen'. They signify the understanding of interior truths, truths which origin is from the celestial. Thus, it is truth from good that enters one's understanding and his will. That is why the Word comes again to earth to man in order to fight the evils and overcome the falsities in man. And, it is in its internal or spiritual sense that the Word comes and is revealed to those who become enlightened. As has been said, the battle is a spiritual battle of truths against falsities. And, this requires more than the admittance of truths into a person's understanding, but come as an army of truths 'as it were' all coordinated, and is as such, the doctrine of faith as regards rational things. That 'armies and hosts' signify truths is revealed all throughout the Word. In Daniel we read,
"The one [little] horn of the he-goat grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the host of Heaven, and cast down to earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. It drew itself up, even towards the prince of the hosts. His host was set over the continual [burnt offering] on account of the transgression, and cast down truth to the earth. I heard a holy one speaking, He said, For how long is this vision, the continual burnt offering, and the desolating transgressions, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden own?" (8: 9-13).
This, of course, was Daniel's dream. It describes the army of falsities moving against God's army of truths and, if the falsities could, they would have overcome even Heavenly truths and the Lord Himself, that is, the Divine Truth its self. One can understand by 'casting down the truth' to earth as truth being made false with man, for that is what man has done with God's truths.
Armies of the Lord signify spiritual truths; these constitute one's faith or the doctrine of faith in man. Spiritual truths in a man are forms of good when a man leads his lives according to those truths. So, since the armies in the test follow the Lord out of Heaven, it is the spiritual Church that is here meant, and also all those who are in regeneration, For, the truths of faith comes from the Divine Truth, that is, from the Lord and not from man. It is in these truths good is within such a person. As an example, the Israelites were to come out of Egypt according to their armies. In the spiritual sense, it is meant coming out of conflicts with falsities and, thus, they 'as it were' performed military spiritual service. One can see here why the Word refers to the Church as being militant and victorious in battle.
So, from the text of the 'white horse and its Rider' we see the spiritual sense of the Word revealed in a new Revelation, in a new Word that is now descending to earth for man.
End.
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