50. The Church’s Body of Teaching Is to Be Drawn from the Literal Meaning of the Word and Is to Be Supported by It

THE preceding chapter was devoted to showing that in its literal meaning the Word is in its fullness, holiness, and power; and since the Lord is the Word (because he is everything in the Word), it follows that the Lord is most present in that meaning and that he teaches and enlightens us through it.

I need to present this, though, in the following sequence.

1. The Word is not understandable without a body of teaching.

2. A body of teaching must be drawn from the literal meaning of the Word.

3. However, the divine truth that a body of teaching should have can be seen only when we are being enlightened by the Lord.

1981. Let one further similar experience be related. I once had quite an ordinary dream, and having woken up I related it all from start to finish. The angels said that it coincided exactly with what they had been discussing; not that the things they were discussing appeared in the dream, but instead things completely different, into which the thoughts in their discussion were transformed, yet in such a way that they were representative and correspondent. Not one detail was missing. I also spoke to them about influx, about how such things flow in and are varied. There was a person of whom I had the idea that he was governed by natural truth, an idea which I had gained from the things he had done in life. Among the angels a discussion was taking place concerning natural truth, and therefore that person was represented to me. What he told me in my dream, and the things that he did, as well as the order in which these things came, were representative of and corresponded to their higher source, namely the discussion taking place among the angels. Yet what he told me was not anything like or the same as what the angels were discussing.