8868. A brief statement must also be made about truths which come from a source other than the Lord. In general they are those which do not have the Lord within them. The truths a person knows do not have the Lord within them when he refuses to accept Him and His Divinity, or else when he does accept Him and yet believes that what is good and true does not begin in Him but in himself, as a result of which he claims righteousness for himself. Nor do those truths have the Lord within them which are taken from the Word, in particular from the sense of the letter there, and interpreted in favour of personal dominion and personal gain. In themselves these are truths because they come from the Word yet they are not truths because they are interpreted wrongly and thereby perverted. Such perversions of them are what the Lord means by the following in Matthew,

If anyone says, Behold, here is the Christ! or There! do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead into error, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24:23-26.

See 3900. And in Luke,

See that you are not led astray. For many will come in My name, saying, I am He; The time is near. Therefore do not go after them. Luke 21:8.

[2] Truths which come from the Lord never cease to be truths from the Lord in their inward form. But truths which do not come from the Lord appear to be truths only in their outward form, not in their inward form - for inwardly they are either empty, false, or evil. To be the truth, truth must have life within it; for truth devoid of life is not the truth of faith with a person, and life comes from no other source than good, that is, from the Lord by way of good. If therefore the Lord is not within truth it is truth devoid of life, and so is not truth. And if there is falsity or evil within it the actual truth with a person is falsity or evil. For what exists inwardly constitutes its essential nature, and also in the next life shines through the outward appearance. From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that there must be no thought about truths from any source other than the Lord.

[3] Since few know about the nature of truths which are truths in their inward form, and so which have life from the Lord, something will be said from experience regarding them. In the next life when anyone speaks there others perceive plainly what lies concealed in the words he utters, such as whether inwardly it is closed or open, and also what kind of affection there is within it. If there is an affection for good it is inwardly soft, if there is an affection for evil it is inwardly hard; and so on. With the angels of heaven the whole content of what they say is open all the way to the Lord. This is not only clearly perceived to be so but is audible from the softness of their speech, indeed from the particular nature of its softness. From this too what lies concealed inwardly in truths is known, whether it is the Lord or not. Truths which have the Lord within them are truths that have life, but truths which do not have the Lord within them are truths that have no life. Those which have life are truths of faith grounded in love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. Those which have no life are not truths, because inwardly they have self-love and love of the world in them. In this way spirits or angels in the next life can be told apart, for each individual's possession of truth is determined by the life he leads, that is, by that which reigns universally in him.

6222. 'And he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim' means the Church's will and the Church's understanding, born from the internal. This is clear from the representation of 'Manasseh' as the new will in the natural and its essential nature, dealt with in 5354 (end); and from the representation of 'Ephraim' as the new understanding in the natural and its essential nature, dealt with in 5354. The birth of the two from the internal is meant by the fact that they were the sons of Joseph, who represents the internal celestial, 5869, 5877.

[2] What the Church's understanding is and what its will is must be stated. The Church's understanding consists in perceiving from the Word what the truth of faith is and what the good of charity is. As is well known, the literal sense of the Word is by nature such that a person can use that sense to support any opinion at all that he may adopt. The reason for this is that ideas appearing in the literal sense of the Word serve as general vessels to receive truths, though not until they have actually received truths does the real nature of those vessels reveal itself as if through transparency. Thus those ideas form merely a general impression which a person must gain first in order that he may aptly receive particular aspects and specific details. This fact - that the literal sense of the Word is by nature such that a person can use that sense to support any opinion at all that he may adopt - is clearly evident from the great number of heresies that have existed in the Church, and still exist in it. Adherents of each heresy find support for it in the literal sense of the Word, support which enables them to believe fully that it is the truth, which means that if they were to hear the actual truth from heaven they would receive nothing at all of it.

[3] The reason why they would not receive it is that they do not share in the understanding that the Church possesses; for that understanding exists when people read the Word, assiduously take one statement together with another, and by doing so see what they ought to believe and what they ought to do. Such understanding comes only to those who receive light from the Lord, whom the Christian world also calls 'the enlightened'. That enlightenment does not come to any but the kind of people who have the desire to know truths, not for the sake of reputation and glory but for the sake of life and service. That same enlightenment is received by a person in his understanding, for the understanding is the receiver of light. This is clearly evident from the fact that people who have little understanding cannot by any means see such things from the Word but have faith in those who they think are the enlightened. Furthermore it should be recognized that those who have been regenerated receive from the Lord an understanding which is capable of being enlightened; and it is the light of heaven coming from the Lord that flows into the understanding and gives it light, for the understanding receives its light, its sight, and consequently its perception from no other source.

[4] But this understanding which is being called the Church's understanding is more internal than an understanding based merely on factual knowledge, for it consists in a discernment that a thing is true not because factual evidence and philosophical deductions dictate it but because the Word in its spiritual sense does so. For example, people who possess the Church's understanding can perceive clearly that in every single part the Word teaches that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are the essential qualities of the Church, that a person's life continues after death, and that his life arises out of his loves. They can also perceive that faith separated from charity is not faith, that faith contributes nothing to eternal life except in the measure that the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbour are linked to it, and that faith and charity must therefore be joined together so that spiritual life may exist. People with an enlightened understanding can perceive quite clearly that these things are true; but those without it can by no means see that they are.

[5] It is thought that the people with an understanding in things of the Church are those who know how to substantiate extensively the opinions or teachings of their Church, to the point of convincing others that they are true, and who know how to refute numerous heresies in a masterly way. But this is not what is meant by the Church's understanding, for substantiating opinions is not a characteristic of the understanding but of mental ability at a sensory level, which sometimes comes to exist in very wicked people; indeed those without any beliefs at all, also those who are steeped in actual falsities, can have that ability. Nothing comes more easily to both these kinds of people than to substantiate whatever idea they like, so thoroughly that they convince the simple. But before substantiating any opinion the Church's understanding engages in seeing and perceiving whether it is true or not, and in substantiating it only after that.

[6] This understanding is what is represented by 'Ephraim'. But the Church's good, which is represented by 'Manasseh', is the good of charity, which the Lord instills into a member of the Church through the truths of faith. For these truths together with the good of charity are what flow into the understanding and give it light, and also enable the understanding and the will to constitute one mind. The truth that both these - the understanding and the will - are born from the internal may be seen from what was stated and shown previously; for the whole affection for goodness and truth, the affection through which enlightenment comes, flows in from no other origin, thus is born from no other origin than the internal; that is, it comes from the Lord through the internal.