63. (Verse 13) And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man. That this signifies the Lord, from whom is the all of heaven and of the church, is evident from the signification of "in the midst," as denoting in the inmost (see Arcana Coelestia 1074, 2940, 2973); and, because all things proceed from the inmost as light from the centre into the circumferences, therefore, "in the midst," signifies from whom. This is evident also from the signification of the seven lampstands, as denoting the New Heaven and the New Church (concerning which see above, n. 62); and from the signification of the Son of man, as denoting the Lord as to the Divine Human, and also as to Divine truth, because this proceeds from His Divine Human. From these considerations it is evident that the Lord appeared in the midst of seven lampstands, because from Him proceeds the all of heaven and of the church; for the good of love and the good of faith constitute heaven and the church, and that these are from the Divine is known in the Christian world, and because they are from the Divine, they are from the Lord, because the Lord is the God of heaven, and because the Divine of the Lord makes heaven (see the work, Heaven and Hell 2-6, and n. 7-12; and that this is His Divine Human, n. 78-86).

[2] That by the Son of man is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human, and also as to Divine truth, because Divine truth proceeds from His Divine Human, is evident from those passages in the Word where mention is made of the Son of man. Thus in John:

The multitude said unto Jesus, "How sayest thou that the Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? Jesus answered them, Yet a little while the light is with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light" (12:34-36).

From these words it is clear that by the Son of man is signified the same as by light; for when they inquired, "Who is this Son of man?" the Lord answered that He was the light in which they should believe. (That light is the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 126-140; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 49; thus also that the Son of man is the Divine truth.) It is said in Luke:

[3] "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you for the Son of man's sake" (6:22).

For the Son of man's sake is for the sake of the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord. Divine truth is the all of faith and love to the Lord; and because they who are evil deny those things, and they who deny also hate them, and the good acknowledge them, therefore it is said, that these latter are blessed. Again, in the same:

[4] "The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, but ye shall not see it. Then they shall say to you, Behold here, or behold there; go not away, nor follow them" (17:22, 23).

To desire one of the days of the Son of man, is to desire something of genuine Divine truth. The end of the church is there meant, when there will be no longer any faith, because no charity, at which time all Divine truth will perish; and because Divine truth is signified by the Son of man, therefore it is said, "Then shall they say, Behold here, or behold there; follow them not." And in the same:

[5] "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (18:8);

that is, when Divine truth shall be revealed out of heaven, it will not be believed. The Son of man, in this place also, is the Lord as to Divine truth; the coming of the Lord is the revelation of Divine truth at the end of the church. (See Arcana Coelestia 3900, 4060.)

[6] And in Matthew:

"As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and glory" (24:27, 30).

(That by the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, is there signified the revelation of Divine truth at the end of the church, may be seen above, n. 36.)

[7] And in the same:

"I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (26:64).

And in Luke:

"Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God" (22:69).

The Son of man is the Lord as to the Divine Human, and as to Divine truth proceeding from It; to sit on the right hand of power, means that He has omnipotence; its being said that they should see this now, means, that Divine truth was in its omnipotence when the Lord in the world had conquered the hells, and reduced to order all things there and in the heavens, and that thus those would be saved who should receive Him in faith and love. (See Arcana Coelestia 9715. That to sit on the right hand denotes omnipotence, may be seen Arcana Coelestia 3387, 4592, 4933, 7518, 8281, 9133; that all the power of good is by truth, n. 6344, 6423, 8304, 9327, 9410, 9639, 9643. That Divine power itself is by Divine truth proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord, see n. 6948; that the clouds in which the Son of man will come are the Word in the letter, which is Divine truth in the ultimate of order, see the preface to the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, Arcana Coelestia 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8443, 8781; and that glory is the Divine truth itself, such as it is in the internal sense of the Word, see n. 4809, 5922, 8267, 9429.)

[8] From these considerations it is now evident what is signified by these words in the Apocalypse:

"I saw, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown" (14:14).

And in Daniel:

"I saw in the visions of the night, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of the heavens" (7:13).

Because all judgment is executed from truth, therefore it is said, that it is given to the Lord "to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man" (John 5:27); and that "the Son of man shall render to every one according to his deeds" (Matthew 16:27); and that "when the Son of man shall come, he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and shall judge" (Matthew 25:31).

[9] And again in Matthew, it is said:

"He who soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the evil" (13:37, 38).

The good seed is Divine truth, therefore it is said that the Son of man soweth it; the sons of the kingdom are Divine truths in heaven and the church; for son denotes truth (see Arcana Coelestia 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623), and, in an opposite sense, falsity, which also is the son of evil.

[10] In the same:

"The Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (8:20);

by which is signified, that Divine truth had not a place anywhere, or with any man, at that time. Again it is said, that the Son of man would suffer and be put to death (Matthew 17:12, 22; 26:2, 24, 45; Mark 8:31; 9:12, 31); by which is signified, that thus they would treat Divine truth, consequently the Lord, who was Divine truth itself, as He also teaches in Luke:

"The Son of man must first suffer, and be rejected of this generation" (17:25).

[11] In Jeremiah:

"No man [vir] shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man [hominis] abide there" (49:18, 33).

In the same:

In the cities "no man shall dwell, nor shall a son of man pass through them" (51:43).

He who is not acquainted with the spiritual sense of the Word, believes that by cities here are meant cities, and that by man, and by a son of man, are meant a man and a son; also, that the cities were thus to be desolated, so that no one should be in them; but it is the state of the church as to the doctrine of truth which is described by those words; for cities denote the doctrinals of the church (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 402, 2449, 3216, 4492, 4493); and man is the essential truth thereof, conjoined with good (see n. 3134, 7716, 9007); thus the Son of man is truth. Because the Son of man signified Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, therefore the prophets also, through whom it was revealed, were called "sons of man," as Daniel (8:17); and Ezekiel (2:1, 3, 6, 8; 3:1, 3, 4, 10, 17, 25; 4:1, 16; 8:5, 6, 8, 12, 15; 12:2, 3, 9, 18, 22, 27). As most things in the Word have also an opposite sense, so also has the signification of a son of man, which in that sense denotes falsity opposed to truth. Thus in Isaiah:

"What art thou, that thou fearest man? he dies; and a son of man? he is as grass" (51:12).

And in David:

"Place not your trust in princes, in a son of man, with whom there is no salvation" (Psalm 146:3).

Princes denote primary truths (see Arcana Coelestia 2089, 5044); thus, in an opposite sense, primary falsities; and son of man denotes falsity itself.

48. What is earthly and what is spiritual. How wrong-headed it is that today's world attributes almost everything to the physical world and almost nothing to the Divine: 3483. Why this is the case (5116) when the fact is that absolutely everything in the physical world not only arose but also continues to exist from the Divine, through the agency of the spiritual world (775, 8211). Things divine, heavenly, and spiritual have their outermost boundaries in the physical world: 4240, 4939. The physical world is the foundation on which they stand: 4240, 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216. Heavenly, spiritual, and earthly realities follow and progress in proper sequence, and are accompanied by what is divine because they come from the Divine: 880, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068. Heavenly realities act as the head [in the universal human], spiritual realities the torso, and earthly realities the legs and feet: 4938, 4939. One of these flows into the next in the same order just mentioned: 4938, 4939. The goodness of the central or third heaven is called "heavenly," the goodness of the intermediate or second heaven is called "spiritual," and the goodness of the outermost or first heaven is called "spiritual-earthly," which make it possible for us to know what the terms "heavenly," "spiritual," and "earthly" mean: 4279, 4286, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068. See also my book Heaven and Hell 20-28, 29-40.

[2] Everything in the physical world comes from the Divine through the spiritual world: 5013. So there is something spiritual within everything earthly, like an efficient cause within an effect (3562, 5711), like the impetus within motion (5173), and like an inner level within an outer level (3562, 5711, 5326); and since a cause is the essential element within an effect, the impetus is the essential element within a motion, and the inner level is the essential element within an outer level, it follows that what is spiritual is actually the essential element within what is earthly, and therefore so is the Divine, which is the source of all things (2987-3002, 9701-9709). Spiritual realities are manifested in what is earthly, and those manifestations are representations and correspondences: 1632, 2987-3002. Because of this, the whole physical world is a theater that portrays the spiritual world-that is, heaven: 2758, 2999, 3000, 4939, 8848, 9280. All things in the physical world are arranged in a design and sequence according to the purposes they serve: 4104. This [purposiveness] comes from the spiritual world (that is, heaven) because purposes, which are ways of being useful, are dominant there: 454, 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. We have been created in such a way that we perceive in ourselves divine things that are descending all the way into physical matter in accord with the divine design: 3702.

[3] If we are in accord with the divine design, we invariably have an inner level and an outer level. Our inner level is called "the spiritual level" or "the spiritual self," and our outer level is called "the earthly level" or "the earthly self": 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9709. Our spiritual self is in heaven's light and our earthly self is in this world's light: 5965. Our earthly self cannot grasp anything on its own; its comprehension is a result of our spiritual self: 5286. Our earthly level is like a surface in which our deeper qualities see themselves; this is how thinking takes place: 5165. Our spiritual self produces thought in our earthly level and therefore thought in earthly terms, as long as our spiritual concerns come into our awareness down on the sensory level: 3679, 5165, 6284, 6299. The earthly plane is where what is spiritual has its outermost boundaries: 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216. Our spiritual self does not see anything in our earthly self unless our earthly self corresponds to our spiritual self: 3493, 3620, 3623. Our spiritual or inner self can see what is going on in our earthly or outer self, but not the reverse, because what is spiritual flows into what is earthly, but what is earthly does not flow into what is spiritual: 3219, 4667, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9110. On the basis of its own light, which is called earthly light, ¹ our earthly self does not know anything about God or heaven or life after death; and it does not believe anything it hears unless some spiritual illumination, which is light from heaven, flows into that [earthly] light: 8444.

[4] From birth and by nature, our earthly self is opposed to our spiritual self: 3913, 3928. As a result, as long as these selves remain opposed we find it irksome to think about spiritual and heavenly subjects but pleasant to think about earthly and bodily ones: 4096. We feel sick when we are faced with heavenly subjects-even when they are merely mentioned: 5006, 9109 (which include evidence from eyewitness experience). People who are entirely earthly regard anything that is spiritually good and true as a slave: 5013, 5025. Yet the earthly self should be subject to the spiritual self and should serve it: 3019, 5168. Our spiritual self can be said to be a slave to our earthly self when we use our intellect to garner justification, especially from the Word, for the kind of things that we crave: 3020, 5013, 5025, 5168. What merely earthly people look like in the other life, and what their state and destiny is there: 4630, 4633, 4940-4951, 5032, 5571.

[5] The truths that we have in the earthly self are called "factual" and "conceptual": 3293. In its natural state, our earthly self has a materialistic imagination and has drives like those of animals: 3020. When, however, the vision, action, and life of our earthly self depend on our inner or spiritual self, then we develop genuine thought and imagination: 3493, 5422, 5423, 5427, 5428, 5477, 5512.

[6] Relative to the contents of our spiritual self, the contents of our earthly self are very general (3513, 5707); and are therefore comparatively in the dark: (6686).

[7] Our earthly self has an inner and an outer layer: 3293, 3294, 3793, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649. There is also a bridge between them: 4570, 9216. It is in and by means of our earthly self that our spiritual self is relieved of its burdens: 9572.

People who do good things solely because of the earthly disposition they were born with and not on the basis of religion are not accepted into heaven: 8772.

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