In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.

580. What kind of malice infernal spirits possess can be confirmed from their nefarious arts, which are so many that to enumerate them would fill a book, and to describe them would fill many books. These arts are mostly unknown in the world. ONE kind relates to abuses of correspondences; a SECOND to abuses of the ultimates of Divine order; a THIRD to the communication and influx of thoughts and affections by conversions, by inspections, and by the instrumentality of other spirits apart from themselves, and spirits sent out by themselves; a FOURTH to operations by phantasies; a FIFTH to projections out beyond themselves, and consequent presence elsewhere than where they are in the body; a SIXTH to pretences, persuasion, and lies. The spirit of an evil man comes of itself into these arts when he is released from his body, for they are inherent in the nature of the evil in which he then is. By these arts they torment each other in the hells. But as all of these arts, except those that are effected by pretences, persuasions, and lies, are unknown in the world, I would not here describe them in detail, both because they are not comprehended, and because they are wicked.