137. It says in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word: all things were made by means of him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind. He was in the world, and the world was made by means of him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory. (John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14)

It is clear that the Lord is the one who is meant by "the Word," since it says that the Word was made flesh. Precisely what is meant by "the Word," though, is not yet known and must therefore be stated. The Word in this passage is the divine truth that is in the Lord and from the Lord, ¹ so here it is also called the light, which is divine truth, as has been shown earlier in this chapter. Now we need to explain the statement that all things were made and created by means of divine truth.

[2] In heaven, it is divine truth that possesses all power, and apart from it there is no power whatever. ² All angels are called "powers" because of divine truth, and are powers to the extent that they are recipients or vessels of it. Through it they prevail over the hells and over all who oppose them. A thousand enemies there cannot bear one ray of heavenly light, which is divine truth. Since angels are angels because of their acceptance of divine truth, it follows that all heaven is from this source and no other, since heaven is made up of angels.

[3] People cannot believe that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth if the only concept of truth they have has to do with thought or speech, which have no power in them except to the extent that other people concede it by being obedient. There is an intrinsic power within divine truth, though, power of such nature that by means of it heaven, the world, and everything in them was created.

We can illustrate the fact that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth by two comparisons - by the power of what is true and good in us, and by the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world.

By the power of what is true and good in us: Everything we do, we do out of our discernment and intent. Out of our intent, we act by means of what is good, and out of our discernment by means of what is true. In fact, all the elements of our volition are related to what is good, and all the elements of our discernment are related to what is true. ³ On this basis, then, we set our whole body in motion and a thousand things there rush to do our bidding of their own accord. We can see from this that our whole body is formed for obedience to what is good and true and therefore from what is good and true.

[4] By the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world: Everything that grows in our world - things like trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, fruits, and seeds - arises only by means of the warmth and light of the sun. So we can see what kind of productive power is inherent in that warmth and light. What about the divine light that is divine truth, then, and the divine warmth that is divine good, the source from which heaven comes into being and consequently the world as well, since as we have shown above, it is through heaven that the world comes into being?

This enables us to determine how to understand the statement that all things were made by means of the Word, and that without him nothing was made that was made, and further that the world was made by means of him, namely that this was accomplished by means of divine truth from the Lord. ⁴

This is also why in the book of creation it first mentions light and then the things that arise from light (Genesis 1:3-4). It is also why everything in all heaven and earth has to do with what is good and true and to their union if it is to be anything at all. ⁵

Bilješke:

62. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, signifies a new heaven and a new church, which are in the good of love. This is evident from the signification of "having turned to see," as being to understand from illustration (See just before, n. 61); and from the signification of "seven," as being what is full and all, and as being predicated where the holy things of heaven and the church are treated of (See above, n. 20, 24); and from the signification of "lampstands," as being the new heaven and the new church (as will be seen in what follows); and from the signification of "gold," as being the good of love (See Arcana Coelestia 113, 1551-1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9510, 9874, 9881). That "seven lampstands" signify heaven and the church is evident from the last verse of this chapter, where it is said, "The seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches." That "the seven churches" signify all who are of the church of the Lord, thus the church in general, may be seen above n. 20; they also signify heaven, because heaven and the church make one; moreover, those that have the church in them have heaven in them; for the reason that the good of love and of faith makes the church with man, and makes heaven with him, as it does with angels; consequently, those that had the church, that is, the goods and truths of the church, in them in the world, come into heaven after death. (That this is so, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 12; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, (Heaven and Hell 57, 221-227). The "seven lampstands" here mean the new heaven and the new church, for these are treated of at the end of Revelation (See chapter 21), and thus the conclusion of all things therein; and because that which is last is also first, the prediction respecting these is presented at the beginning. Moreover, it is also customary in the Word to mention in the beginning things that are to take place at the end, because intermediates are thus included; for, in the spiritual sense, the first is the end for the sake of which, as that is both first and last, and to it all other things look (See in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 98).

[2] That "lampstand" signifies heaven and the church is evident from the description of the lampstand which was in the tabernacle, for by the tabernacle the whole heaven in the complex was represented; and by the lampstand therein, the spiritual heaven, which is the second heaven (See Arcana Coelestia n. 3478, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9548-9577, 9783). That this is so is clearly evident from John's seeing "in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man;" "the Son of man" is the Lord in respect to His Divine Human, from which is Divine truth, which is the All in all things of heaven and the church. In the spiritual heaven also lampstands appear in much magnificence; by these that heaven is represented. These it has been given me to see. From this it can be seen what is meant in the Word, in the spiritual sense, by "lampstands" and by "lamps," in the following passages. In Revelation:

I will remove thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent (Revelation 2:5).

"To remove thy lampstand" is to take away from them heaven or the church. In Zechariah:

The angel said to the prophet, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold a lampstand all of gold, its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon, with seven pipes to the lamps (Zechariah 4:2, 3).

Here Zerubbabel is treated of, who was to lay the foundation of the house of God, and to finish it. By Zerubbabel is represented the Lord, that He was about to come and restore heaven and the church: these are the "lampstands" and the holy truths there are "the seven lamps."

[3] Because a lampstand takes its representative meaning from the lamps, and the lamps from light, which in heaven is Divine truth, so the Lord is also called "a lamp," as in Revelation:

The holy Jerusalem hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; the glory of God shall lighten ¹ it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof (Revelation 21:23; 22:5).

From this also it is that David, and the kings after him, are called:

Lamps of Israel (2 Samuel 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19);

for the Lord in respect to His royalty was represented by David, likewise by the kings of Judah and Israel. (For the representation by "David," see Arcana Coelestia 1888, 9954; and by "kings," n. 31, above.) The lampstands that were seen were of gold; because "gold" signifies the good of love, and all that proceeds from the Lord is from Divine love; consequently the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him and love towards the neighbor, which is charity (as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19). This is why the lampstand here, as well as the lampstand in the tabernacle, was of gold.

Bilješke: