1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

625. Over peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings.- That this signifies with all those who are in truths and goods as to life, and at the same time in goods and truths as to doctrine according to every one's religion, consequently that the Word may be taught as to goods of life and as to truths of doctrine, is evident from the signification of peoples and nations, as denoting those who are of the spiritual church, and those who are of the celestial church. Those who are of the spiritual church are called in the Word peoples, but those who are of the celestial church are called nations. Those who are of the spiritual church, and are called peoples, are in truths as to doctrine and life; and those who are of the celestial church, and are called nations, are in the good of love to the Lord, and thence in good as to life (concerning this signification of people and nations in the Word, see above, n. 175, 331); and from the signification of tongues, and many kings, as denoting those who are in goods and truths as to life and doctrine, but according to each one's religion. For tongues signify the goods of truth, and confession thereof according to each one's religion (see above, n. 330, 455); and kings signify truths which are from good, and many kings, various truths which are from good, but according to each one's religion (concerning this signification of kings, see above, n. 31, 553).

[2] Various truths from good are signified by "many kings," because the peoples and nations out of the church were for the most part in falsities as to doctrine, but still, because they lived a life of love to God and of charity towards the neighbour, the falsities of their religion were accepted by the Lord as truths, because the good of love was interiorly in their falsities, and the good of love qualifies all truth, and in such case qualifies the falsity that is believed by such to be truth; the good also, which lies concealed within, causes such, when they come into the other life, to perceive genuine truths, and receive them. Moreover there are truths that are only appearances of truth, such as are those contained in the sense of the letter of the Word; these appearances of truth are also accepted by the Lord as genuine truths when the good of love to the Lord, and the good of charity towards the neighbour are in them; in the other life also the good that lies hidden within dissipates appearances, and lays bare spiritual truths, that are genuine truths. From these things the meaning of "many kings" is evident. But concerning falsities with the Gentiles in which there is good, see the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 21).

[3] From what has been said and shown in this and the preceding article, it is plain, that the command to John that he must prophesy again over peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings, signifies that the Word must as yet be taught to those who are in goods and truths as to doctrine, and thence as to life. But because it is said, "over peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings," also these words signify, that the Word must be taught as to goods of life and as to truths of doctrine, for the Word in its whole extent contains these two.

[4] This is the sense of those words apart from persons, which is the truly spiritual sense. The sense of the letter in most places is concerned with persons, and it also names them, but the truly spiritual sense is entirely apart from persons. For the angels, who are in the spiritual sense of the Word, in everything which they think and speak, have no idea of person or place, because the idea of person and place limits and confines the thoughts, and consequently renders them natural. But it is different when the idea is abstracted from persons and places; and this is the reason why they have intelligence and wisdom, and why angelic intelligence and wisdom are inexpressible. For while man lives in the world, he is in natural thought; and natural thought derives its ideas from persons, places, and times, and from material things, and, if these were taken away from man, his thought which comes to perception would perish, for he comprehends nothing without such things. But angelic thought is without ideas derived from persons, places, times, and material things; for this reason angelic thought and speech therefrom are inexpressible, and are also incomprehensible to man.

[5] The man, however, who has in the world lived a life of love to the Lord and of charity towards his neighbour, comes into that inexpressible intelligence and wisdom after his departure out of the world; for his interior mind, which is the very mind of his spirit, is then opened, and the man, when he becomes an angel, then thinks and speaks from it, and therefore thinks and speaks such things as he could neither utter nor comprehend in the world. Every man possesses such a spiritual mind, which is like the angelic mind; but because, in the world, he speaks, sees, hears, and feels, by means of the material body, it lies hid within the natural mind, or lives above it, and he is then altogether ignorant of what he is thinking in the spiritual mind; for the thought of that mind then flows into the natural mind, and is there limited, bounded, and so presented as to be seen and perceived. A man does not know so long as he lives in the body in the world that he interiorly possesses such a mind, and therein angelic wisdom and intelligence, because, as stated, all things that concern that mind flow into the natural mind, and thus become natural according to correspondences. These things are said in order that the quality of the Word in the spiritual sense may be known, when that sense is regarded altogether apart from persons and places, that is apart from those things that take their quality from the material things pertaining to the body and the world.