What the Writings Testify
What the Writings Testify
CHAPTER 5
The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is the same as the Internal Sense of the
Word
"As for the doctrine in special which now follows, it also is from heaven, because
it is from the spiritual sense of the Word, and the spiritual sense of the Word is the
same with the Doctrine which is in heaven... From these things it may appear what is meant
by this, that the holy city,
New Jerusalem, was seen to descend from God out of heaven. But I will proceed to the
Doctrine itself which is for the New Church; which, because it is revealed to me out of
heaven, is called The Heavenly Doctrine..."
- New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 7
It has now pleased the Lord to reveal many arcana of heaven, especially the internal or
spiritual sense of the Word which heretofore had been entirely unknown, and therewith He
has taught the genuine truths of doctrine: which revelation is understood by "the
Advent of the Lord" in Matthew xxiv ... "
- Apocalypse Explained 641
"... 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 it thinks
together with angels, and thus conjoins them to himself in his intellectual mind..."
- De Verbo VII (20)
"That the spiritual sense of the Word is at this day disclosed by the Lord, is
because the doctrine of genuine truth is now revealed, and this doctrine, and no other,
agrees with the spiritual sense of the Word."
- Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture 25
"The Divine truth in the Word and its quality are described by the 'cherubs' in
Ezekiel i, ix, and x; and as no one can know what is signified by the particulars in their
description but one to whom the spiritual sense has been opened, it has for that reason
been disclosed to me what is signified, in brief, by all the things which are told
concerning the cherubs in the first chapter of Ezekiel... These summaries have also been
collated with the Word in heaven, and are in conformity with it."
- Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture 97:5
"At this day the spiritual sense of the Word has been revealed by the Lord,
because the doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed, which doctrine is partly
contained in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and now in the small works which are being
given to the public; and because that doctrine and no other agrees with the spiritual
sense of the Word, therefore that sense, together with the science of correspondences, has
-now for the first time been disclosed... By many that sense will not be acknowledged for
a long time."
- De Verbo VII (21)
"The truth of the internal sense of the Word is the same thing (idem) as the
genuine truth of the Doctrine of faith of the Church."
- Arcana Coelestia 9034
"This explanation of that chapter [Zech. 4] was given me by the Lord through
heaven."
- Apocalypse Revealed 43e
"From this Doctrine, also, the internal sense of the Word is known, since the
internal sense of the Word is the Doctrine itself of love to the Lord and charity towards
the neighbor..."
- Arcana Coelestia 9409:3
"It is to be known that the internal sense of the Word contains the genuine
doctrine of the church."
- Arcana Coelestia 9424:3
"The Doctrine of faith is the same thing as the understanding of the Word as to
its interiors or its internal sense."
- Arcana Coelestia 2762:2
"The internal sense is itself the genuine doctrine of the church... They who
understand the Word according to the internal sense, know the true Doctrine itself of the
Church, because the internal sense contains it (AC 9025, 9430, 10401)."
- White Horse 11
"Those who remain in the literal sense of the Word alone and do not gather
anything doctrinal thence.... are separate from the internal sense; for the internal sense
is the doctrinal itself."
- Arcana Coelestia 9380
"This Doctrine itself the internal sense teaches, and he who knows this Doctrine,
has the internal sense of the Word."
- Arcana Coelestia 10276
"The Doctrine which should be for a lamp is that which the internal sense teaches,
thus it is the internal sense itself, which in some measure lies open to every one ...
whose internal man is open..."
- Arcana Coelestia 10400:3
"The internal sense is not only that sense which lies concealed in the external
sense ... but is also that which results from a number of passages rightly collated, and
which is discerned by those who are enlightened by the Lord as to their intellectual ...
"
- Arcana Coelestia 7233:3
"... The literal sense of the Word is for man while he is in the world, whereas
the internal sense is for man when he comes into heaven. But it is to be known that man
while in the world is at the same time in the internal sense of the Word when he is in the
genuine doctrine of the church as to faith and as to life; for through that doctrine the
internal sense of the Word is then inscribed both on his understanding and on his
will..."
- Arcana Coelestia 9430
"That the Word in the sense of the letter is signified by a "wall" (Rev.
21:12), appears clearly from the things which follow in this chapter which treats much of
the wall, its gates, foundations, and measurement. The reason is because the Doctrine of
the New Church, which is meant by 'the city', is solely (unice) out of the sense of the
letter of the Word."
- Apocalypse Revealed 898
"'And the wall of the city had twelve foundations' signifies that the Word in the
sense of the letter contains all things of the doctrine of the New Church."
- Apocalypse Revealed 902
"The true Doctrine of the Church is what is here called the internal sense; for in
the internal sense there are such truths as are with the angels of heaven."
- Arcana Coelestia 9025
"It is said in the Apocalypse, 'a new heaven and a new earth', and afterwards,
'Behold, I make all things new'; by which nothing else is meant than that in the church
now to be established by the Lord there will be a New Doctrine which was not in the former
church.... This same doctrine was indeed before given in the Word; but because the church
not long after its first establishment was turned into a Babylonia, and with others later
into a Philistia, therefore it could not be seen from the Word. For a church does not see
the Word otherwise than from its principle of religion and its doctrine."
- Doctrine Concerning the Lord, 65
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