The Word and Its Spiritual or Internal Sense - 4
Understanding the Word through Doctrine from the Word - 2
Those Who are Enlightened from the Lord
Understanding the Word through Doctrine from the Word - 2
Those Who are Enlightened from the Lord
The person who truly understands the Word has been enlightened. The question is why is it that the Word is not truly understood except by means of doctrine from the Lord? First, one needs to know that the doctrine that we come to form for ourselves must come from the Lord and not ourselves. You will understand in this paper later why this is. At first thought one might think that any doctrine formed comes from the Word - the written Word of the Old, New, and, for one who is a New Church person, the Third Testament. After all has not the Lord God spoken the Word and was it not recorded for mankind so that he can learn about the Lord that he might become regenerated, that is, saved? However, true doctrine comes from the Lord through the Word, not from the Word from self. What is so important about man forming doctrine from the Word for himself? Is it not the clergy do that for us? And, does not anyone do so who is serious about his faith? One thing that was shown in the last doctrinal paper was that doctrine is like a lighted lamp to those who read the Word because it is the truth. So the Word can be truly understood.
Nonetheless, the question is: is the doctrine that is formed the genuine doctrine? Let us examine this further. Mankind, because of his natural state, which is a state separate from the spiritual or internal, sees and imbibes only from the Word's literal sense and all that is seen there is apparent truths. Such truths in the literal sense are called scientific truths, differing from the truths of faith, which are seen as the doctrine of the various Churches today. These scientific truths of the Word, when they are explained and one becomes instructed, are said for the sake of apprehension and according to appearances, though most do not know this and accept the literal sense as being genuine sense.
Therefore, any doctrine that is derived from the Word's literal or natural sense alone without any knowledge of its spiritual sense has within fallacies and when they are confirmed as the truth become falsities with the person. Yet, the Word has been accommodated to the man who is in the natural state that he might be reformed and regenerated. Thus, we are to take or develop true doctrine from the Word. The faith that one develops determines the doctrine as to whether it is true or genuine or false. Now, this begs the question: Who can understand the Word and develop genuine doctrine if it is only seen in its literal sense? Of course, it is those who come to see its internal sense. Thus, the answer lies in these who are enlightened from the Lord through the Word. Yet, where in the Word can we find the truth that teaches this?
In Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt out of bondage, we can come to see this. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, after God spoke to Moses and when Moses drew near to God who was in the thick darkness, he was instructed to build an alter and to teach the people how they must live according to the commandments. The Lord had commanded him to come up to Him, separating the people from him. Then, we read that Moses came again to the people, telling them all what the Lord God had spoken to him. "And Moses came and announced to the people" (v. 3). Can not one see, here, Moses as representing the Lord instructing the Israelites through Divine Truth, which is the Lord Himself? Besides, do we not, who are Christian, see Moses as being chosen to write the Word of God - the first five books of the Old Testament?
Are not the words here spoken to the people the Word of God, which later became written down and are which many come to accept as the Divine Truth? Now, look at these words - these truths - as the Lord coming to us as seen as Moses coming to the people. In this, we see the Word as to the Lord, that is, as to the Divine Truth represented by Moses. And, was not the Ten Commandments here explained by the Lord more fully as to how the people were to live accordingly? Thus, the people were enlightened when they so lived. By 'coming' in the Word is meant the Lord's presence in the Word with man, and when these truths are announced to us are not they then to be seen as instructions for our living? In truth, does not the Lord God then come to live in us in truths and goods and is His presence again with us?
Naturally, not all heard the Word back when Moses spoke it to them, just as in the Lord's First Advent not all heard Him or even believed Him, neither do they, today, even though it is recorded all what the Lord had said and taught - the New Testament. However, one is taught and instructed, that is, enlightened according to the love he or she has for the truth and the desire to live accordingly as he or she has facility for.
Now, difficult and as strange as it may sound to many, such enlightenment is not to one's external, but is to one's internal man. The case for this is, the external man sees, that is, he understands according to his love of self and of worldly things. He thinks it is by his knowing and his understanding without the Lord's presence that he comes to see interior things, even spiritual and celestial things. Thus, truths are not seen except in their relationship with his loves, which we said were of his self, or of what is his own, that is, from his proprium and of the world. Such truths are seen in appearances. As such, the internal man is not changed, but remains under the influence of his will, which is external and is without the presence of the Lord. In fact, it is 'as if' he had no internal at all. One, who is such, applies the truth to him self and, thus, forms his doctrine, which is of fallacies and becomes false. Thus his faith is not a true faith, that is, a faith from the Lord. He is not in the affection of truth from good, that is, from the Lord, but in the affection of truth for the sake of self.
As such, there is no understanding of the Word as to its interior sense. There one's 'light' or understanding is from this world, not from Heaven, through his external or natural senses. Worldly 'light' blinds one's understanding rather than enlightens when reading the Word. Remember, here, that natural understanding sees only things that agree with the natural world, for the external of man lives in appearances of truth as we have shown, thus in fallacies, which when embraced become falsities, though they appear to him as truths. What we may understand here is that the man who sees only from the natural senses does not form true doctrine, but remains in the literal sense, which he applies in favor him self. Others may simply confirm the doctrinal of their church not really caring or knowing if such doctrines are true or false. One sees here that those who love truth, not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of self, are not truly enlightened, while those who love truth for the sake of truth become enlightened. Basically, good and truth conjoins as do evil and falsity in man. It can be said that those who are in Heavenly loves are enlightened and those who are in worldly loves are blinded; though the external and internal man may appear alike.
Because this is so, then, how does man become enlightened from the Word from the Lord? Let us again turn to the Word of the Old Testament to see this explained. In chapter thirty-four of Exodus, we read where the Lord said to Moses to hew two tablets of stone, like the first, which he (Moses) had broken. Again, the Lord asks him to meet with Him alone. This time it was on the mountain and again within the 'thick darkness'. Moses prayed for the people who had sinned. And we see that God makes a covenant with the people that they were to worship the Lord alone, and there also was a warning if they should not. Here, then, was the feast of the unleavened bread established. Now, observe what the Lord says, "As I command thee, in the time of the month of Abib: for in the month of Abib thou came out of Egypt"? (v. 18). When the Lord commands it is according to Divine Order. He would not and could not command what is not according to Divine Order. You can see also that by commanding this at the first of the year that it is as a new beginning or new state with them, because 'Abib' was the first month of the year. This can be seen somewhat even today when a person makes a 'new years' resolution, as turning over a new leaf or a new beginning. One can see here there must be repentance. This celebration was done because that was the time when the Israelites were liberated from Egypt and bondage. Now, imagine what if we, today, were held captive and infested by falsities and 'as if' held bondage in hell. We can see why the feast of the Passover or the feast of unleavened bread was instituted for a remembrance of their freedom by the Lord from hell as represented by their bondage in Egypt. Thus, we come to see that it was not by their faith alone, without the Lord, that they were liberated. We see that they had to act, that is, to live accordingly and to listen and acknowledge and do, otherwise they would have remained in captivity to the Egyptians.
You can understand that the doctrine that teaches that in which they are freed from Egypt's bondage, that is, from hell, is as a 'light' from Heaven leading them. This also serves us as an illustration by which we can compare doctrine derived from one's self with doctrine from the Lord both having been taken from the Word. Because man had been separated from God by his sin, those who were in the Christian Churches believed the Lord would come into the world to reconcile the people with the Father. And, they say that He does this (reconciling) through the Son's death or passion of the cross. It was taught that they must believe this and that then the Lord would intercede for them. Many claim they are released from living the Commandments, saying that the Lord has lived them in their stead. They also say and teach that the Lord alone saves. Thus, this is their faith in which they are confident and have trust and, therefore, the doctrine that is derived by many believe from their own or self without the Lord.
Yet, can such a doctrine be genuine that is derived from one's own thinking? Let us see where doctrine is enlightened with man from Heavenly light. First, can the Divine, which is Love Itself and Mercy Itself, cast away and condemn to hell the human race or did man himself turn away from God? Next, was it by the Lord's passion on the cross that the Lord reconciled man with the Father? In other words, can a person live in evil and falsity and still be brought into Heaven by the mere fact that the Lord died on the cross? Was the Father moved to compassion and mercy to save man when the Son died? Does the Father not condemn a man if only he or she is confident in such a faith that concerns such reconciliation? Does He save man by such faith? Where in this kind of faith is there any repentance and change in one's life? Sure, there are truths that are seen in this doctrine, but the doctrine its self is false and does not lead one to reformation and regeneration. And, when you ask how these things can be, it is said that they are not to be comprehended and are called mysteries.
In such a faith Heavenly light cannot enter, for there the subject is not understood. Why, you may ask, is there not enlightenment; after all, does not the person read these things, such as, the Lord's passion on the cross, that no man has power to save self, and even that the Lord (Jehovah) angered against the people, etc. The answer is, because such faith is from the love of self, therefore, there is in it no power to understand what is the truth. However, when the Lord is acknowledged and man loves to live according to His precepts, then is the man enlightened as he reads the Word and so understands it because his life is in it. The only difference is that the person who is enlightened and who is not enlightened is that one lives according to the Lord's Precepts from a love to the Lord and from a love of the truth for the sake of the truth and the other does not.
If a man says he believes and does not live accordingly, there is no enlightenment. The cause of this is that the Lord flows in into man into his life and therefore into his faith. He does not come into a man's faith apart from his life. Basically, there is no enlightenment in one's 'understanding' alone, and he is not 'willing' or acknowledging or living according to God's precepts.
We now understand that by enlightenment by the Lord through the Word man develops genuine doctrine. The order had been upset by man's sin; man no longer loved the Lord or the neighbor, but himself. He no longer was conjoined with the spiritual or the celestial state of his life. The man was, because of his sin, held in captivity by the hells. It then can be seen that the Lord came into the world that He might subdue the hells and bring man and the Heavens back into order. He does so, only through the Human that He put on upon coming into the world. The whole of the Word teaches that the Lord came to save man and that all were waiting for His Coming on earth. Now, it can be seen by His victories over the evils from hell that He also glorified Himself, that is, that He united the Human with the Divine and the Divine with the Human. He thus brought back all things into order in the spiritual world and keeps them there. From this work of the Lord comes the salvation of man.
Are not the hells around every man waiting to lead us into evils? Are not we born into evils of every kind and where the hells are? If the Lord came into the world and had not put on the natural body by His own Divine Power we surely could not be saved. The Word shows this to all those who understand and admit the Lord into themselves within their life.
When a person is led away from evils he is regenerated, and thus is saved and this by the Lord's mercy. Such salvation is not immediate, but mediate. Truths of faith and the good of love from the Lord are admitted into one's life as he departs from evils. It is this man who acknowledges truth from an inward perception, and who comes to understand genuine truths in his own thought. For love brings about perception and perception thought, which produces acknowledgement or faith. Example: The Lord is loved and the man lives according to the Lord's Divine Truth and, so, he performs uses. Thus, the Words, "At that day you shall know that you are in Me, and I in you; he that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me; and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him, and will come unto him, and make My abode with him" (John 14: 20,21, 23).
It is those who are enlightened when they read the Word, that the Word becomes lucid and transparent. Thus are they enlightened, for the spiritual and celestial senses are contained in every part of the Word. These senses are in the light of Heaven. It is in this way that the Lord, through influx into the natural senses, enters a man's life. Reading the Word under the influence of false doctrine and for the purpose of gain or reputation one does not see the truth in 'light', but in shade and in falsities of truths. There, the Word says concerning such that, "They have eyes and see not, and ears, and so not understand" (Matthew 12: 14,15). Those in the external sense of the Word are represented by "the sons of Israel who (were) set apart" (Exodus 24:11). What is seen here is that these had no doctrine of charity and faith from the Word, that is, truths from the Lord. They lived solely in the sense of the letter of the Word. The doctrine of charity and faith is the internal sense of the Word while the external sense of the letter of the Word is only an appearance. So, those in the external are in external worship without an internal. These external things of worship they call holy.
However, can anyone be purified from sin by eating the sacrifice of the Lord as represented by the bread and the wine of the Holy Supper or were the Israelites purified by eating the sacrifices of the oxen, goats, rams, and sheep on the altar? Indeed, one who worships so, does so for his sake and not for the Lord's. Basically, this is as one who is not willing to hear anything about mutual love and charity towards the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor and his good. One's salvation comes in the willing to receive the doctrine of love and faith to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor, and in this it is known that these things spoken of in the letter of the Word do not purify and save anyone.
End.
Nonetheless, the question is: is the doctrine that is formed the genuine doctrine? Let us examine this further. Mankind, because of his natural state, which is a state separate from the spiritual or internal, sees and imbibes only from the Word's literal sense and all that is seen there is apparent truths. Such truths in the literal sense are called scientific truths, differing from the truths of faith, which are seen as the doctrine of the various Churches today. These scientific truths of the Word, when they are explained and one becomes instructed, are said for the sake of apprehension and according to appearances, though most do not know this and accept the literal sense as being genuine sense.
Therefore, any doctrine that is derived from the Word's literal or natural sense alone without any knowledge of its spiritual sense has within fallacies and when they are confirmed as the truth become falsities with the person. Yet, the Word has been accommodated to the man who is in the natural state that he might be reformed and regenerated. Thus, we are to take or develop true doctrine from the Word. The faith that one develops determines the doctrine as to whether it is true or genuine or false. Now, this begs the question: Who can understand the Word and develop genuine doctrine if it is only seen in its literal sense? Of course, it is those who come to see its internal sense. Thus, the answer lies in these who are enlightened from the Lord through the Word. Yet, where in the Word can we find the truth that teaches this?
In Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt out of bondage, we can come to see this. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, after God spoke to Moses and when Moses drew near to God who was in the thick darkness, he was instructed to build an alter and to teach the people how they must live according to the commandments. The Lord had commanded him to come up to Him, separating the people from him. Then, we read that Moses came again to the people, telling them all what the Lord God had spoken to him. "And Moses came and announced to the people" (v. 3). Can not one see, here, Moses as representing the Lord instructing the Israelites through Divine Truth, which is the Lord Himself? Besides, do we not, who are Christian, see Moses as being chosen to write the Word of God - the first five books of the Old Testament?
Are not the words here spoken to the people the Word of God, which later became written down and are which many come to accept as the Divine Truth? Now, look at these words - these truths - as the Lord coming to us as seen as Moses coming to the people. In this, we see the Word as to the Lord, that is, as to the Divine Truth represented by Moses. And, was not the Ten Commandments here explained by the Lord more fully as to how the people were to live accordingly? Thus, the people were enlightened when they so lived. By 'coming' in the Word is meant the Lord's presence in the Word with man, and when these truths are announced to us are not they then to be seen as instructions for our living? In truth, does not the Lord God then come to live in us in truths and goods and is His presence again with us?
Naturally, not all heard the Word back when Moses spoke it to them, just as in the Lord's First Advent not all heard Him or even believed Him, neither do they, today, even though it is recorded all what the Lord had said and taught - the New Testament. However, one is taught and instructed, that is, enlightened according to the love he or she has for the truth and the desire to live accordingly as he or she has facility for.
Now, difficult and as strange as it may sound to many, such enlightenment is not to one's external, but is to one's internal man. The case for this is, the external man sees, that is, he understands according to his love of self and of worldly things. He thinks it is by his knowing and his understanding without the Lord's presence that he comes to see interior things, even spiritual and celestial things. Thus, truths are not seen except in their relationship with his loves, which we said were of his self, or of what is his own, that is, from his proprium and of the world. Such truths are seen in appearances. As such, the internal man is not changed, but remains under the influence of his will, which is external and is without the presence of the Lord. In fact, it is 'as if' he had no internal at all. One, who is such, applies the truth to him self and, thus, forms his doctrine, which is of fallacies and becomes false. Thus his faith is not a true faith, that is, a faith from the Lord. He is not in the affection of truth from good, that is, from the Lord, but in the affection of truth for the sake of self.
As such, there is no understanding of the Word as to its interior sense. There one's 'light' or understanding is from this world, not from Heaven, through his external or natural senses. Worldly 'light' blinds one's understanding rather than enlightens when reading the Word. Remember, here, that natural understanding sees only things that agree with the natural world, for the external of man lives in appearances of truth as we have shown, thus in fallacies, which when embraced become falsities, though they appear to him as truths. What we may understand here is that the man who sees only from the natural senses does not form true doctrine, but remains in the literal sense, which he applies in favor him self. Others may simply confirm the doctrinal of their church not really caring or knowing if such doctrines are true or false. One sees here that those who love truth, not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of self, are not truly enlightened, while those who love truth for the sake of truth become enlightened. Basically, good and truth conjoins as do evil and falsity in man. It can be said that those who are in Heavenly loves are enlightened and those who are in worldly loves are blinded; though the external and internal man may appear alike.
Because this is so, then, how does man become enlightened from the Word from the Lord? Let us again turn to the Word of the Old Testament to see this explained. In chapter thirty-four of Exodus, we read where the Lord said to Moses to hew two tablets of stone, like the first, which he (Moses) had broken. Again, the Lord asks him to meet with Him alone. This time it was on the mountain and again within the 'thick darkness'. Moses prayed for the people who had sinned. And we see that God makes a covenant with the people that they were to worship the Lord alone, and there also was a warning if they should not. Here, then, was the feast of the unleavened bread established. Now, observe what the Lord says, "As I command thee, in the time of the month of Abib: for in the month of Abib thou came out of Egypt"? (v. 18). When the Lord commands it is according to Divine Order. He would not and could not command what is not according to Divine Order. You can see also that by commanding this at the first of the year that it is as a new beginning or new state with them, because 'Abib' was the first month of the year. This can be seen somewhat even today when a person makes a 'new years' resolution, as turning over a new leaf or a new beginning. One can see here there must be repentance. This celebration was done because that was the time when the Israelites were liberated from Egypt and bondage. Now, imagine what if we, today, were held captive and infested by falsities and 'as if' held bondage in hell. We can see why the feast of the Passover or the feast of unleavened bread was instituted for a remembrance of their freedom by the Lord from hell as represented by their bondage in Egypt. Thus, we come to see that it was not by their faith alone, without the Lord, that they were liberated. We see that they had to act, that is, to live accordingly and to listen and acknowledge and do, otherwise they would have remained in captivity to the Egyptians.
You can understand that the doctrine that teaches that in which they are freed from Egypt's bondage, that is, from hell, is as a 'light' from Heaven leading them. This also serves us as an illustration by which we can compare doctrine derived from one's self with doctrine from the Lord both having been taken from the Word. Because man had been separated from God by his sin, those who were in the Christian Churches believed the Lord would come into the world to reconcile the people with the Father. And, they say that He does this (reconciling) through the Son's death or passion of the cross. It was taught that they must believe this and that then the Lord would intercede for them. Many claim they are released from living the Commandments, saying that the Lord has lived them in their stead. They also say and teach that the Lord alone saves. Thus, this is their faith in which they are confident and have trust and, therefore, the doctrine that is derived by many believe from their own or self without the Lord.
Yet, can such a doctrine be genuine that is derived from one's own thinking? Let us see where doctrine is enlightened with man from Heavenly light. First, can the Divine, which is Love Itself and Mercy Itself, cast away and condemn to hell the human race or did man himself turn away from God? Next, was it by the Lord's passion on the cross that the Lord reconciled man with the Father? In other words, can a person live in evil and falsity and still be brought into Heaven by the mere fact that the Lord died on the cross? Was the Father moved to compassion and mercy to save man when the Son died? Does the Father not condemn a man if only he or she is confident in such a faith that concerns such reconciliation? Does He save man by such faith? Where in this kind of faith is there any repentance and change in one's life? Sure, there are truths that are seen in this doctrine, but the doctrine its self is false and does not lead one to reformation and regeneration. And, when you ask how these things can be, it is said that they are not to be comprehended and are called mysteries.
In such a faith Heavenly light cannot enter, for there the subject is not understood. Why, you may ask, is there not enlightenment; after all, does not the person read these things, such as, the Lord's passion on the cross, that no man has power to save self, and even that the Lord (Jehovah) angered against the people, etc. The answer is, because such faith is from the love of self, therefore, there is in it no power to understand what is the truth. However, when the Lord is acknowledged and man loves to live according to His precepts, then is the man enlightened as he reads the Word and so understands it because his life is in it. The only difference is that the person who is enlightened and who is not enlightened is that one lives according to the Lord's Precepts from a love to the Lord and from a love of the truth for the sake of the truth and the other does not.
If a man says he believes and does not live accordingly, there is no enlightenment. The cause of this is that the Lord flows in into man into his life and therefore into his faith. He does not come into a man's faith apart from his life. Basically, there is no enlightenment in one's 'understanding' alone, and he is not 'willing' or acknowledging or living according to God's precepts.
We now understand that by enlightenment by the Lord through the Word man develops genuine doctrine. The order had been upset by man's sin; man no longer loved the Lord or the neighbor, but himself. He no longer was conjoined with the spiritual or the celestial state of his life. The man was, because of his sin, held in captivity by the hells. It then can be seen that the Lord came into the world that He might subdue the hells and bring man and the Heavens back into order. He does so, only through the Human that He put on upon coming into the world. The whole of the Word teaches that the Lord came to save man and that all were waiting for His Coming on earth. Now, it can be seen by His victories over the evils from hell that He also glorified Himself, that is, that He united the Human with the Divine and the Divine with the Human. He thus brought back all things into order in the spiritual world and keeps them there. From this work of the Lord comes the salvation of man.
Are not the hells around every man waiting to lead us into evils? Are not we born into evils of every kind and where the hells are? If the Lord came into the world and had not put on the natural body by His own Divine Power we surely could not be saved. The Word shows this to all those who understand and admit the Lord into themselves within their life.
When a person is led away from evils he is regenerated, and thus is saved and this by the Lord's mercy. Such salvation is not immediate, but mediate. Truths of faith and the good of love from the Lord are admitted into one's life as he departs from evils. It is this man who acknowledges truth from an inward perception, and who comes to understand genuine truths in his own thought. For love brings about perception and perception thought, which produces acknowledgement or faith. Example: The Lord is loved and the man lives according to the Lord's Divine Truth and, so, he performs uses. Thus, the Words, "At that day you shall know that you are in Me, and I in you; he that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me; and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him, and will come unto him, and make My abode with him" (John 14: 20,21, 23).
It is those who are enlightened when they read the Word, that the Word becomes lucid and transparent. Thus are they enlightened, for the spiritual and celestial senses are contained in every part of the Word. These senses are in the light of Heaven. It is in this way that the Lord, through influx into the natural senses, enters a man's life. Reading the Word under the influence of false doctrine and for the purpose of gain or reputation one does not see the truth in 'light', but in shade and in falsities of truths. There, the Word says concerning such that, "They have eyes and see not, and ears, and so not understand" (Matthew 12: 14,15). Those in the external sense of the Word are represented by "the sons of Israel who (were) set apart" (Exodus 24:11). What is seen here is that these had no doctrine of charity and faith from the Word, that is, truths from the Lord. They lived solely in the sense of the letter of the Word. The doctrine of charity and faith is the internal sense of the Word while the external sense of the letter of the Word is only an appearance. So, those in the external are in external worship without an internal. These external things of worship they call holy.
However, can anyone be purified from sin by eating the sacrifice of the Lord as represented by the bread and the wine of the Holy Supper or were the Israelites purified by eating the sacrifices of the oxen, goats, rams, and sheep on the altar? Indeed, one who worships so, does so for his sake and not for the Lord's. Basically, this is as one who is not willing to hear anything about mutual love and charity towards the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor and his good. One's salvation comes in the willing to receive the doctrine of love and faith to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor, and in this it is known that these things spoken of in the letter of the Word do not purify and save anyone.
End.
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