It sounds strange to say that the universe was created by divine truth – “truth” doesn’t

sound like an active, building kind of thing – but it makes more sense when we think of

“truth” in its deepest sense: as love expressed, as love given form. Because the Lord was

love itself He had to create so He would have something to love. And truth is the thing

that turns love into creation, by giving love expression and giving it form.

That’s not easy to visualize. But it’s interesting – and a bit stunning – how those ideas

from the Writings were borne out by Albert Einstein 130-some years later. One of

Einstein’s most important findings was that mass and energy are really the same thing.

That’s expressed in the famous equation e=mc^2 , in which “e” is energy, “m” is mass and

“c” is the speed of light. It meant that mass – the “stuff” things are made of, the stuff we

can feel and heft – is actually made up of huge amounts of energy trapped in very small

spaces. This meant that breaking up “stuff” and releasing the energy would be very

powerful – it is the basis of nuclear weapons and powerplants – and also meant that the

universe was ultimately one big energy field, folded and crinkled to form mass, in ways

complex enough to form the world we know.

These things were not known or even imagined when the Writing were written, but

replace energy with “love” and mass with “truth” and you can see how alike it is. Truth is

love in patterns, crinkled and folded to form solid concepts, just as mass is energy in

patterns, folded and crinkled to form physical things. And that natural reality of mass and

energy is an extension of the spiritual reality of truth and love.Arcana Coelestia 9410:5Athanasian Creed 145

1066. The other is not yet come, and when he cometh, he must continue but a short space. That this signifies the profaned truth, that the Lord's power over heaven and over earth, assumed by them, is said not to be Divine, when nevertheless it is Divine, is evident from the signification of the other king of the two who were remaining after five of the seven were fallen, as denoting here the other truth profaned, but still one with the former; with this difference, that the Lord's power over heaven and earth, which they have transferred to themselves, is not Divine, when, nevertheless, it is Divine. And because it is Divine, and yet is denied to be so, it is said that that king, that is, that truth profaned, is not yet come; and that when it shall come, it must continue but a short space; by which is signified that that power is Divine, although it is said that it is not Divine. Why this is signified by that other king is, because he acts as one with the former king; only with this difference, whether that power is Divine or not. That he acts as one with the former with this difference, is evident from the verse following, in which the beast is said to be the eighth king, and yet of the seven. Therefore, when the beast is said to be a king of the seven, it follows that those two who remain after the five of the seven who are fallen, and who are called the one and the other, have respect to one thing, or to one truth profaned; and that the other truth profaned is what is signified by the beast, so far as that is said to be one king of the seven.

[2] As to the thing itself, it is known that they say that the power over heaven, and over the souls of men to save them, is not Divine, because it was the power of the Lord's Human transferred to Him from God the Father, and from the Lord to Peter. But these things they say for fear the common people should withdraw from them. That still that power is Divine clearly appears from this, that after God created the universe, the primary [object] of the Divine power is to liberate men from hell, and to save them. For a man is not saved in a moment, because he is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by successive degrees, from infancy even to the last period of his life in the world, and afterwards to eternity, and no human power can contribute to this at all.

That a man is thus reformed and regenerated by the Lord they do not know, because they do not desire to know. Therefore they persuade themselves that salvation is instantaneous, and only admission into heaven; this, however, is absolutely false. But upon this subject more will be said elsewhere.

Continuation concerning the Word:-

[3] In brief, the Word is Divine truth itself which gives wisdom to angels and enlightens men. Because Divine truth proceeds from the Lord, and what proceeds from Himself is Himself, just as light and heat proceed from the sun, and are the sun, or of the sun outside of it; and because the Word is Divine truth, it is also the Lord, as it is called in John (1:1-3, 14). Because the Divine truth, which is the Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through the three heavens, therefore it has become accommodated to every heaven, and lastly also to men in the world. It is from this that, in the Word, there are four senses, one outside the other from the highest heaven even to the world; or one within the other from the world even to the highest heaven. Those four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This being for the world, that for the ultimate heaven, the spiritual for the second heaven, and the celestial for the third.

These four senses differ much from one another, so that when one is beside the other they are not recognised [as the same Word]; but still they make one when one follows the other. For one follows from the other as the effect from the cause, and as what is posterior from what is prior. Therefore, as the effect represents the cause and corresponds to the cause, so does the posterior sense to the prior. Hence it is that all four senses make one by correspondences.

[4] From these things it follows that the ultimate sense of the Word, which is the literal sense, and the fourth in order, contains in itself the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens; that these three senses are unfolded and shown in the heavens, while a man upon earth reads the Word with reverence; that hence it is the literal sense of the Word, from which and by which communication is effected with the heavens; also, from which and by which a man has conjunction with the heavens; that the literal sense of the Word is the basis of the Divine truth in the heavens, and that Divine truth without such a basis would be as a house without a foundation; and that the wisdom of the angels without that foundation would be like a house in the air; that it is the literal sense of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists; that it is the literal sense of the Word by which man receives enlightenment from the Lord, and by which answers are made when man desires enlightenment; that it is the literal sense of the Word from which everything of doctrine on earth is to be confirmed; that Divine truth in the literal sense of the Word is in its fulness; that Divine truth in the literal sense of the Word is in its holiness.