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Arcana Coelestia # 7668

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7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. 1 Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:18.

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, the captivity of horses

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

Bible

 

เยเรมีย์ 52:34

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34 ส่วนงบประมาณที่ให้นั้นท่านก็ได้รับพระราชทานจากกษัตริย์แห่งบาบิโลนตามความต้องการรายวันอยู่เสมอ ตลอดเมื่อท่านมีชีวิตอยู่จนวันตายของท่าน


Many thanks to Philip Pope for the permission to use his 2003 translation of the English King James Version Bible into Thai. Here's a link to the mission's website: www.thaipope.org

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The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings # 51

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51. The worldly knowledge and spiritual knowledge that serve for the opening of our inner spiritual self. "Worldly knowledge" refers to the knowledge we have in our outer or earthly self and its memory, but not to the knowledge we have in our inner or spiritual self: 3019, 3020, 3293, 3309, 4967, 9918, 9922. Since worldly knowledge belongs to the outer or earthly self it is relatively menial. This is because the outer or earthly self is made to serve the inner or spiritual self the way the world serves heaven: 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272, 10471. The outer self is like the world because the laws of the divine design that prevail in the world are written into it; and the inner self is like heaven because the laws of the divine design that prevail in heaven are written into it: 4523, 4524, 5368, 6013, 6057, 9278, 9279, 9283, 9709, 10156, 10472; [see also] Heaven and Hell 51-58.

[2] There are bodies of knowledge of an earthly nature that have to do with our civic condition and our civic life; there are bodies of knowledge that have to do with our moral condition and our moral life; and there are bodies of knowledge that have to do with our spiritual condition and our spiritual life: 5774, 5934. For clarity's sake, though, I refer to knowledge about our spiritual condition and our spiritual life as "spiritual knowledge," which mainly consists of theological teachings: 9945.

[3] It is important for us to become steeped in worldly and spiritual knowledge, because it is through this that we learn to think, then to understand what truth and goodness are, and eventually to be wise-that is, to live by what we have learned: 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802. Worldly and spiritual knowledge are basic things on which our life is built and founded-both our civic and our moral life as well as our spiritual life; but they need to be learned with the goal of living a useful life: 1489, 3310. Spiritual knowledge opens a pathway to the inner self and then joins the inner and the outer self together according to our usefulness: 1563, 1616. Our rationality is born by means of worldly and spiritual knowledge (1895, 1900, 3086), yet it is not born through that knowledge itself, but through and according to our desire to put it to use (1895). The inner self is opened and gradually perfected through worldly and spiritual knowledge if we seek good and useful goals, especially goals related to eternal life: 3086. Then spiritual insights from the heavenly and spiritual self encounter the knowledge of worldly and spiritual things that is in the earthly self and adopt what is suitable: 1495. Then from the knowledge about worldly and spiritual things that is in our earthly self the Lord, by means of our inner self, draws out, refines, and raises up what is useful for heavenly life (1895, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 5871, 5874, 5901), but information that is incompatible or conflicting is pushed aside and excluded (5871, 5886, 5889). The sight of our inner self calls forth from the worldly and spiritual knowledge in our outer self only those things that relate to what we love: 9394. Our worldly and spiritual knowledge is arranged in bundles and bound together according to the type of love that drove us to learn it: 5881. Then to the eye of our inner self the information that relates to what we love is at the center and in bright light, while the information that does not relate is off to the sides and in darkness: 6068, 6085. Worldly and spiritual knowledge is gradually sown in our loves and takes up residence there: 6323. If we were born loving the Lord and loving our neighbor we would be born into all knowledge and understanding, but since we are born loving ourselves and the world we are born into total ignorance: 6323. Knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom are the offspring that are born of love for the Lord and love for our neighbor: 1226, 2049, 2116.

[4] Since knowledge of worldly and spiritual things belongs to the outer or earthly self, it is in this world's light, but truths that have become matters of love and faith and therefore have been applied to life are in heaven's light: 5212. Even so, earthly concepts are needed to help us understand the truths that we are applying to life: 5510. There is a spiritual inflow through the inner self into the knowledge of worldly and spiritual things that is in the outer self: 1940, 8005. Knowledge of worldly and spiritual things is a container and vessel for the truth and goodness that belong to the inner self: 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077, 7770, 9922. That is why "vessels" in the Word, spiritually understood, means knowledge of worldly and spiritual things: 3068, 3069, 3079, 9394, 9544, 9723, 9724. Our worldly knowledge is like a mirror in which we can see and perceive in a kind of image things that are true and things that are good in the inner self (5201); all three meet together there on the outermost level (5373, 5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077). Since worldly information is in this world's light, it is tangled and dark compared to things that are in heaven's light, which means that the same holds true for the contents of the outer self in comparison to those of the inner self: 2831. In fact, in the Word "a thicket" (2831) and "clouds" and "darkness" (8443, 10551) mean worldly knowledge.

[5] We need to make our start from the truths of a body of teaching from the Word and acknowledge them first, and then it is allowable to turn to worldly knowledge in order to find support for them and verify them: 6047. So if people have a positive attitude toward the truths that belong to religious faith, it is all right for them to look to worldly knowledge for intellectual support, but it is not all right for people who have a negative attitude to such truths, because a positive attitude as a starting point pulls everything in a positive direction, but a negative attitude as a starting point pulls everything in a negative direction: 2568, 2588, 3913, 4760, 6047. There is an affirmative way of doubting and a negative way of doubting, the former being characteristic of the good and the latter characteristic of the evil: 2568. Engagement with worldly knowledge on the basis of the truths that belong to religious faith accords with proper order; but the reverse, engaging on the basis of worldly knowledge with the truths that belong to religious faith, is contrary to proper order: 10236. Since inflow is spiritual and not physical or earthly it is a flow from the truths that belong to religious faith (because these are spiritual) into worldly knowledge (because this is earthly): 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5479, 6322, 9109, 9110.

[6] People who doubt in a truly negative way, and say that they will not believe until they are convinced by objective evidence, will never believe: 2094, 2832. People who do this become insane in regard to matters of the church and heaven: 128, 129, 130. They fall prey to false beliefs and evil cravings (232, 233) in the other life when they think about spiritual matters they become like drunks (1072). More about what they are like: 196. Some examples illustrating the fact that spiritual matters cannot be grasped if they are approached from the wrong direction: 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. Many scholars are more insane in spiritual matters than ordinary people because they are resolutely negative and have an abundant supply of facts to support their denial: 4760. An example of a scholar who was incapable of understanding anything about spiritual life: 8629. People who use worldly knowledge to dispute the truths that belong to religious faith do so with vehemence, since their arguments are based on the deceptive impressions of the five senses. These impressions, being hard to dispel, are arresting and persuasive: 5700. People who understand nothing of what is true and who are also given to evil are able to reason about the truths and the good actions taught by faith, and yet they have no enlightenment: 4214. Simply confirming a dogma is not a sign of intelligence, because a dogma that is false is as easy to confirm as one that is true: 1017, 2477, 2490, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. People who reason about the truths of the church by asking whether something is so or not are completely in the dark about truths and have no spiritual light yet: 1 215, 1385, 3428.

[7] There are types of knowledge that support divine truths and types that do not: 5213. Empty facts have to be eliminated from our minds: 1489, 1492, 1499, 1500. Facts are empty if they intend and support our love for ourselves and the world and lead us away from loving the Lord and our neighbor, because this kind of thing closes the inner self so completely that we can then not accept anything from heaven: 1563, 1600. Worldly knowledge is a means to both wisdom and madness; by it the inner self is either opened or closed and our rational functioning is either developed or destroyed: 4156, 8628, 9922.

[8] Worldly learning means nothing after death except what we have gained through it for our understanding and life: 2480. Nevertheless, all our worldly knowledge remains intact after death, though it is dormant: 2476-2479, 2481-2486.

[9] The same facts that are false for evil people because they are used for evil purposes are true for good people because they are used for good purposes: 6917. The truths that evil people know are not actually true no matter how true they may seem when they say them, because there is something evil within those truths and they are falsified as a result; not even the knowledge they have deserves to be called knowledge, because it has no life within it: 10331.

[10] It is one thing to be wise, another to be intelligent, another to be knowledgeable, and another to act; all the same, for people engaged in a spiritual life, these follow in order and correspond to each other, and they are all present together in the doing and in the deeds: 10331. It is also one thing to know the truth, another to acknowledge it, and still another to believe it: 896.

[11] An example of the kind of craving for information that spirits have: 1973. Angels have an immense desire for knowledge and wisdom because knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual food: 3114, 4459, 4792, 4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 6277, 8562, 9003.

[12] Among the ancients the most important field of study was knowing correspondences, but nowadays that body of knowledge has been erased: 3021, 3419, 4280, 4844, 4964, 4965, 6004, 7729, 10252. There was a knowledge of correspondences among the people of the Near East and in Egypt: 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407. This was the source of their hieroglyphics: 6692, 7097. Through their knowledge of correspondences the ancients gained access to spiritual knowledge of various kinds: 4749, 4844, 4966. The Word was written in pure correspondences, and that is the source of its inner or spiritual meaning. Without a knowledge of correspondences we cannot know that this meaning exists or know what the nature of the Word is: 3131, 3472-3485, 8615, 10687. How superior a knowledge of correspondences is to other forms of knowledge: 4280.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. For an example of such people, see the dialog in Marriage Love 232 between Swedenborg and some "reasoners. " Asked what must be the religion by which people could be saved, their response is to break this down into component questions, the first being whether religion actually is anything. This, they say, would require so much research that it could not be settled within a day, a year, or according to one, a hundred years. [GFD]

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.