What the Writings Testify
What the Writings Testify
CHAPTER 14
Divine authority belongs to the Lord alone
"It is the Divine which bears witness concerning the Divine, and not man from
himself ..."
- Apocalypse Explained 635
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In three places, the Writings give a list of those books in the Bible which are the Word
of God because they contain a continuous internal sense inspired by the Lord. See AC
10325, WH 16, and HD 266.
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"Lest man should be in doubt whether the Word is Divine and most holy, its
internal sense has been revealed to me by the Lord ...That sense is the spirit which
vivifies the letter; wherefore that sense can testify concerning the Divinity and sanctity
of the Word, and convince even the natural man, if he is willing to be convinced".
- True Christian Religion 192
"It is one thing to have faith in and believe in the Lord, and another to have
faith in and believe any man. The difference shall be told below."
- Doctrine of Faith 7
"The doctrinals of the church are to be learned, and then exploration is to be
made from the Word as to whether they are true; for they are not true because the heads of
the church have said so and their followers confirm it, inasmuch as thus the doctrinals of
all churches and religions would have to be called true, merely according to country and
birth ..."
- Arcana Coelestia 6047
" ...My friend, do not put trust in any council, but have faith in the Word of the
Lord which is above Councils."
- True Christian Religion 489
"The worldly and corporeal man says in his heart, 'Unless I am instructed
concerning faith and everything relating to it, by sensual things, so that I may see them,
or by means of science, so that I may understand them, I will not believe'; and he
confirms himself in his incredulity by the fact that natural things cannot be contrary to
spiritual things. Thus he desires to be instructed in what is heavenly and Divine from
what is sensual, which nevertheless is as impossible as it is for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle; for the more he desires to grow wise by such a process, the more he
blinds himself, till at length be comes to believe nothing, not even that there is any
thing spiritual or an eternal life. This follows from the principle which he lays down;
and this is to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which, the more he
eats, the more dead he becomes. But he who desires to grow wise from the Lord and not from
the world, says in his heart that the Lord must be believed, that is, the things which the
Lord has spoken in the Word, because they are truths, and from this principle he thinks.
He confirms himself by rational considerations, by science, and by sensual and natural
things, and those which are not confirmatory, he separates."
- Arcana Coelestia 128
"There are two principles - one which leads to all folly and madness, and another
which leads to all intelligence and wisdom. The former principle is to deny all things, as
when a man says in his heart that he cannot believe such things until he is convinced by
what he can grasp or feel; this principle is what leads to all folly and madness, and may
be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm those things which are
of doctrine from the Word, as when a man thinks and believes that they are true because
the Lord has said so; this principle is what leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and may
be called the affirmative principle ..."
- Arcana Coelestia 2568
"Those think ...from the affirmative who believe that things are true because the Lord has said so in the Word, thus those who have faith in the Lord. They who deny that what is in the Word is true, and who say in their hearts that they will believe when they are persuaded by things rational and scientific, are in such a state of mind that they will never believe, - no, not even when convinced by the bodily senses, as by the sight, the hearing, and the touch; for they always frame new reasonings against such convictions, so as to finally altogether extinguish all faith, and at the same time turn the light of the rational into darkness, because into falses. But those who are in the affirmative, that is, who believe that things are true because the Lord has said so, are continually being confirmed through rational, scientific and even sensual things, and their ideas are enlightened, and they are strengthened ...With these doctrine 'lives' ...
"They who incline to a life of evil fall into the negative; but they who incline
to a life of good are led into the affirmative ...
"They who have blinded themselves by not being willing to believe anything which they
do not grasp by the senses, until at length they have come to believe nothing, were of old
called 'serpents of the tree of knowledge' ...
"In the other life such are readily distinguished from other spirits by this, that
on every subject relating to faith they reason whether it be so or not, and, though it be
shown to them a thousand and thousand times to be so, still they raise negative doubts in
opposition to every confirmation, and this to eternity. They are therefore blinded to such
a degree that they are bereft of common sense -that is, they cannot comprehend what is
good and true ..."
- Arcana Coelestia 2588:2, 3, 9
"With those who are in the negative-that is, those with whom the negative
universally reigns doubts can in no wise be removed, for with them one scruple avails more
than a thousand confirmations; for one scruple is as a grain of sand placed close before
the pupil of the eye, which, although it is single and small, nevertheless takes away all
sight. But they who are in the affirmative-that is, those with whom the affirmative
universally reigns-reject the scruples that arise from fallacies which are contrary to
truths; and if there are any which they do not comprehend, they reject them to the sides
and say that they do not yet understand them, and so they remain still in the faith of
truth."
- Arcana Coelestia 6479
"Those who start with a negative never believe, because the negative principle
reigns universally [with them], and when it reigns universally, those scientifics which
deny inflow and are collected together, but not those which confirm; those which confirm
are thrown aside, or are explained so as to favor the negative scientifics, and thus the
negative is confirmed."
- Arcana Coelestia 6383
"The truths spoken by the Lord and concerning the Lord, are to be believed even
though we are not able to penetrate them by reason. To wish to deny because we cannot
penetrate by the reason, is therefore like a desire to deny the procreations of trees from
seeds and of animals from eggs ...Hence it may be seen what kind of a faith a man has when
he believes nothing but what he sees, as is common at this day, especially among the
learned of the world."
- Spiritual Diary 2727
"'And the prince of thy people thou shalt not curse' (Exodus 22:28). Hereby is
signified that neither ought the Doctrine of truth to be blasphemed ...Divine truth is the
Word, and is Doctrine from the Word. They who deny these in heart, blaspheme, even though
with the mouth they praise the Word and preach it. In the denial lies concealed the
blasphemy...Therefore, with the man of the Church the first of all principles is to
believe the Word ..."
- Arcana Coelestia 9222
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