What the Writings Testify
What the Writings Testify
CHAPTER 10
There have been successive Divine revelations, of which the Writings are
the most excellent
"... It was necessary that, from the Divine providence of the Lord, some
Revelation should exist, for a Revelation, or a Word, is the common vessel recipient of
spiritual and celestial things, thus conjoining heaven and earth; otherwise these would
have become disjoined, and the human race would have perished."
- Arcana Coelestia 1775
"As to the Word, ...it has existed at all times, but not the Word which we have at
this day. There was another Word in the Most Ancient Church which was before the Flood;
another Word in the Ancient Church which was after the Flood. But in the Jewish Church
there was the Word which was written through Moses and the Prophets; and, finally, in the
new Church, the Word written through the Evangelists ..."
- Arcana Coelestia 2895
"The Word in the Most Ancient Church was not a written Word, but was revealed to every one who was from the Church, for they were celestial men, thus in the perception of the good and the true, as the angels with whom they consorted; so that they had the Word written in their hearts ...
"Thence came the representatives and signiflcatives which, when communication with angels began to cease, were collected by those who are meant by 'Enoch'...
"From this source was the Word in the Ancient Church which was after the Flood ...
They also had a written Word, which consisted of histories and prophecies, like the Word
of the Old Testament; but in process of time that Word was lost .
- Arcana Coelestia 2896, 2897
" ...When the end of a church is at hand, then the interiors of the Word, of the church, and of worship, are revealed and taught. The reason is that the good may be separated from the evil, for the interiors of the Word, of the church, and of worship, which are celestial and spiritual, are received by the good but are rejected by the evil. Hence there is a separation. Moreover, the interior things of the Word, which are revealed at the end of a church, are of service to the new church which is also then established, for doctrine and for life. That this is so is evident from the fact that when the end of the Jewish Church was at hand, the Lord Himself opened and taught the interior things of the Word ...
"It has been done in like manner at this day; for it has now pleased the Lord to reveal many arcana of heaven, especially the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, which hitherto has been wholly unknown, and with it He has taught the genuine truths of doctrine; which revelation is meant by the advent of the Lord in Matthew (24: 3, 30, 37) ...In both worlds there is a church, and revelation takes place in both, and through this separation, as also the establishment of a new church ...
"If the successive states of the churches on our earth are considered, it is plain
that they were like the successive states of a man who is reformed and regenerated;
namely, that he may become a spiritual man, he is at first conceived, then born, then
grows up, and afterwards is led further and further into intelligence and wisdom. The
church, from most ancient times even to the end of the Jewish church, increased as a man
who is conceived, is born, and grows up, and is then instructed and taught. But the
successive states of the church after the end of the Jewish Church, or from the time of
the Lord even to the present day, have been like a man who grows in intelligence and
wisdom, or is regenerated. For this purpose the interior things of the Word, of the
church, and of worship, were revealed by the Lord when He was in the world; and now again
things still more interior; and so far as interior things are revealed, so far man can
become wiser, for to become interior is to grow wiser, and to grow wiser is to become
interior."
-Apocalypse Explained 641
"At the end of a church, when there is no faith because no charity, the interior things of the Word are manifested, which are to be of service to the new church for doctrine and life. This was done by the Lord Himself when the end of the Jewish Church was at hand. The Lord Himself then came into the world, and opened the interiors of the Word, especially the things concerning Himself, concerning love to Him and love towards the neighbor, and concerning faith in Him, which things formerly had lain hidden in the interiors of the Word ... These truths ... were interior truths and in themselves spiritual, which afterwards were to serve the new church for doctrine and life ...But still, these things were not received at once, but after a considerable course of time, as is known from ecclesiastical history. The reason was that they could not be received until all things in the spiritual world had been reduced into order ...
"A similar thing occurred when the Most Ancient Church, which was before the
Flood, came to its end. The representatives of the celestial things which had been among
the most ancients, were then collected into a one by those who were called Enoch, and were
preserved for the use of the new church after the Flood ... With these the same things
took place, viz., that these things were separated from the evil ones by being 'taken up
into heaven,' and thus guarded, and this even until the old church had come to its last
and when a new Church was about to be established.
"A similar thing is taking place today. This church, which is called Christian, has
at this day come to its end; on which account the arcana of heaven and the church have now
been revealed by the Lord, to be of service to the New Church which is meant in the
Apocalypse by the New Jerusalem, for a doctrine of life and faith. This Doctrine, also,
has been 'taken up into heaven,' lest, before the establishment of the New Church, it
should be hurt by the evil ..."
- Apocalypse Explained 670
That before the church is fully devastated, the Word is interiorly revealed, i.e., as to the spiritual sense, is because then the New Church is to be established, into which are invited those who are of the former church, and for this New Church the Divine truth is interiorly revealed.... It is done in the same way now as it was done at the end of the Jewish Church. At its end, which was when the Lord came into the world, the Word was opened interiorly, for there were revealed by the Lord, when He was in the world, interior Divine truths which were to be of service and also did serve the new church which was established by Him. At the present day, also, on account of similar causes, the Word has been interiorly opened, and thence there have been revealed Divine truths still more interior, which are to be of service for the New Church which is to be called the New Jerusalem.
"The way of the Divine Providence, in revealing Divine truths, can be seen from
the churches which have been successively established ...Inmost Divine truths were
revealed to those who were of the Most Ancient Church; but exterior Divine truths were
revealed to those who were of the Ancient Church, and most external, or ultimate Divine
truths to the Hebrew Church, and finally to the Israelitish, in which at last all Divine
truth perished, for there was finally nothing in the Word which had not been adulterated.
But after the end of that church there were revealed by the Lord interior Divine truths
for the Christian Church; and now truths still more interior for the coming Church. These
interior truths are those which are in the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. From
these things it is manifest, that there has been a progression of the Divine truth from
inmosts to ultimates, thus from wisdom to mere ignorance, and that now there is taking
place a progression of the Divine truth from ultimates to interiors, thus from ignorance
again to wisdom."
- Apocalypse Explained 948
"The Lord Jehovah from the New Heaven derives and produces a New Church upon
earth, which is done by a Revelation of Truths from His own mouth, or from His Word, and
by means of Inspiration."
- Coronis 18
"In place of miracles, there has at this day taken place a manifestation of the
Lord Himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and enlightenment there by means
of (per) immediate light from the Lord in such things as are the interior things of the
church. But chiefly, the opening of the spiritual sense in the Word, in which the Lord is
in His own Divine light.
- Coronis, Mir. IV
"The manifestation of the Lord in Person, and [my] introduction by the Lord into the spiritual world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all miracles; for we do not read anywhere in history that such intercourse with angels and spirits has been granted from the creation of the world. For I am daily with angels there, even as I am in the world with men; and this now for twenty-seven years. The testimonies of this intercourse are the books which have been published by me concerning heaven and hell, and also the memorable relations thence in the last work, called the True Christian Religion ... Tell me, who ever before has known anything about heaven and hell, about the state of man after death, about spirits and angels, etc., etc.
"Besides these most evident testimonies [there is the fact] that the spiritual
sense of the Word has been disclosed by the Lord through me, which has never before been
revealed since the Word was written among the sons of Israel; and this (hie) is the very
Sanctuary of the Word: The Lord Himself is in this [sense] with His Divine, and in the
natural sense with His Human. This, even as to an iota, cannot be opened except by the
Lord Himself. This surpasses all the revelations which have been made since the creation
of the world. Through this revelation there is opened a communication of men with the
angels of heaven, and a conjunction of the two worlds has been effected; since when man is
in the natural sense, the angels are in the spiritual sense ..."
- Invitation to the New Church 43, 44
"...To interpret the spiritual sense from truths of doctrine opens heaven, because
that is the sense in which the angels are, and so man by means of that sense thinks
together with angels and thus conjoins them to himself in his intellectual mind ..."
- De Verbo VII:6 (20)
"...By 'the book' which the Lamb took from Him that sat on the throne, and of
which He loosed the seven seals (Apoc. 5, 6), is meant the Word .... Therefore by 'the
little book' (Apoc. 10:2) in the hand of the angel, who also is the Lord ... nothing else
is meant than the Word as to some essential therein ... This is that doctrine in the Word
that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth and that His Human is Divine ...'The little
book' is said to be open because that doctrine appears manifestly in the Word, and is
evident to every one who reads it, if he attends ...This subject is the very essential of
the New Church ...
"'And when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices', signifies that the Lord
throughout the entire heaven disclosed what was in the little book ...But I will open what
was in the little book. In it were those things which are contained in The Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, from beginning to end ..."
- Apocalypse Revealed 469, 472
In order that the true Christian religion might be disclosed, it could not be otherwise than that some one should be introduced into the spiritual world, and that he should derive from the mouth of the Lord the genuine truths from the Word ...
"Such an intercourse, as far as I know, has not been granted by the Lord to any
one before: indications that this is on account of the New Church which is the Crown of
all the churches and which is to endure to eternity ..."
- Invitation to the New Church, 38, 39
"In the New Church ... it is lawful to enter with the understanding and penetrate
into all the secrets [of faith] and also to confirm them by the Word. The reason is that
its doctrinals are continuous verities laid open by the Lord by means of the Word, and
confirmations of them by rational things cause the understanding to be opened above more
and more, and thus to be elevated into the light in which the angels of heaven are
..."
- True Christian Religion 508
"'And it was given to her that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and
bright,' signifies that they who will be of the Lord's New Church are instructed by the
Lord in genuine and pure truths through the Word."
- Apocalypse Revealed 814
"The angels have told me ... that when [they are turned] to those things which are
in my thought from the heavenly doctrine, then they are in greater clarity than in any
other case."
- Spiritual Diary 5610
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