THE LORD

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Translated from the Latin by George F. Dole

The Portable New Century Edition

Swedenborg Foundation, West Chester, Pennsylvania

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Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

Preface:

Some years ago, I published five small works:

1. Heaven and Hell

2. The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Teachings

3. Last Judgment

4. White Horse

5. Planets and Worlds in the Universe

Many things were presented in these works that had previously been unknown. Now the following works are to be offered to the public at the command of the Lord, who has been revealed to me.

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture

- Teachings about Life for the New Jerusalem: Drawn from the Ten Commandments

- Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Faith

- Supplements on the Last Judgment [and the Spiritual World]

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Infinity, and Eternity

- Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom

- Angelic Wisdom about Life

“Teachings for the New Jerusalem” means teachings for the new church now to be established by the Lord. The fact is that the old church has come to its end, as can be seen from what is said in of the booklet Last Judgment and from more that will be said in the forthcoming booklets just listed.

The twenty-first chapter of Revelation tells us that after the judgment the New Jerusalem will come. As you will see under the last heading below, this New Jerusalem means a new church.

1530. The truth of this could be proved to anyone from the Word, for example, when the Lord revealed Himself to Peter, James, and John, for His face at that time shone like the sun and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. The sole reason why He appeared to them in this way was that their interior sight had been opened. The same is also confirmed from the Prophets, as in Isaiah when reference is being made to the Lord's kingdom in heaven,

The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. Isaiah 30:26.

And in John, where reference is being made to the Lord's kingdom which is called the New Jerusalem,

The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shed light in it; for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. Revelation 21:23.

And elsewhere in the same book,

There will be no night there, nor do they need a lamp or light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. Revelation 22:5.

And in addition when the Lord appeared to Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, it is said that they saw the God of Israel under whose feet there was so to speak a paved work of sapphire stone, like the substance of the sky for clearness, Exodus 24:10. Because the Lord's celestial and spiritual appears before the external sight of the angels as the Sun and the Moon, 'the sun' in the Word therefore means what is celestial, and 'the moon' what is spiritual.