Jerusalem
Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.
(Referências: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])
Heaven and Hell # 127
127. Heaven's light is not natural like the light of our world, but spiritual. It actually comes from the Lord as the sun, and that sun, as explained in the preceding chapter, is divine love. While what emanates from the Lord as the sun is called divine truth in the heavens, in essence it is divine good as one with divine truth. This is the source of light and warmth for angels: they get their light from the divine truth and their warmth from the divine good.
We can therefore conclude that heaven's light, in view of the nature of its source, is spiritual and not natural, as is its warmth. 1
Notas de rodapé:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] All the light in the heavens is from the Lord as the sun: 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. Divine truth emanating from the Lord appears in heaven as light, and constitutes all the light of heaven: 3195, 3222 [3223?], 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684.
