The White Horse Described in Revelation 19, Followed by Material on the Word and Its Spiritual or Inner Meaning Drawn from Secrets of Heaven

Table Of Contents

Concerning the White Horse in the Apocalypse Chapter 19, 1-5

The Word and Its Spiritual or Inner Meaning from Secrets of Heaven, 6

The Word is understood only by people who are enlightened. 7

The Word is understood only by means of a body of teaching drawn from the Word. 8

There is a spiritual meaning in the Word that is known as “the inner meaning.” 9

The inner meaning of the Word is primarily for angels, but it is also for us. 10

There are countless treasures hidden in the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word. 11

The Word was composed using correspondences and therefore representations. 12

The literal meaning or outer form of the Word. 13

The Lord is the Word 14

People who are hostile to the Word. 15

The books that are books of the Word. 16

More on the Word. 17

14. The Lord is the Word. The sole subject of the deepest meaning of the Word is the Lord, and it describes all the phases of the glorification of his human nature (that is, of its union with the divine nature itself), as well as all the phases of his taking control of the hells and setting in order everything there and in the heavens: 2249, 7014. So in this meaning there is a description of the Lord’s whole life in our world, and by means of this there is a constant presence of the Lord with the angels: 2523. At the very center of the Word there is only the Lord, and this is the source of what is divine and holy in the Word: 1873, 9357. The Lord’s saying that the Scripture about him was fulfilled [Luke 18:31; 24:44] was referring to everything in the deepest meaning of the Word: 7933.

“The Word” means divine truth: 4692, 5075, 9987. The Lord is the Word because he is divine truth: 2533. The Lord is the Word also because the Word comes from him and is about him (2859); and in its deepest meaning is about no one but the Lord, so the Lord himself is there (1873, 9357); and also because there is a marriage of divine goodness and divine truth throughout the Word and in its every detail, a marriage found only in the Lord (3004, 3005, 3009, 4137, 5194, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339, 9263, 9314). Divine truth coming from divine goodness is the sole reality, and only what it dwells in—which comes from what is divine—is substantial: ¹ 5272, 6880, 7004, 8200. And because divine truth emanating from the Lord as the sun in heaven is heaven’s light and divine goodness is its warmth, and because everything there comes into being from that light and warmth the way everything in this world comes into being from earthly light and warmth (which are also present in earthly substances and work through them), and because this earthly world as a whole comes into being by means of heaven or the spiritual world, we can see that everything that has been created has been created from divine truth—that is, from the Word, just as it says in John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things that were made were made through him. And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14): 2803, 2894, 5272, 7678. (See Heaven and Hell 137 for more on the creation of everything by divine truth and therefore by the Lord; §§116–125 for more about the fact that the sun in heaven is the Lord and that it is his divine love; and §§126–140 on divine truth being light and divine goodness being warmth, both from that sun in heaven.)

A joining together of the Lord and us is accomplished through the Word, by means of its inner meaning: 10375. Absolutely everything in the Word is a means to this joining together, and this is why the Word is more wondrous than anything else that has been written: 10632, 10633, 10634. Now that the Word has been written, the Lord speaks to us through it: 10290. (See also the information presented in Heaven and Hell 303–310 about the union of heaven with us by means of the Word.)

Fotnoter:

8. The Word is understood only by means of a body of teaching drawn from the Word. The church’s body of teaching must be drawn from the Word: 3464, 5402, 5432, 10763, 10765. Without a body of teaching, the Word is not intelligible: 9025, 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10582. A true body of teaching is a lamp for us when we read the Word: 10400. Any authentic body of teaching must come from people who are enlightened by the Lord: 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105. The Word is to be understood by means of a body of teaching constructed by someone who is enlightened: 10324. People in a state of enlightenment construct a body of teaching for themselves from the Word: 9382, 10659. The nature of the difference between people who teach and learn on the basis of the church’s body of teaching and those who do so solely on the basis of the literal meaning of the Word: 9025. People who are focused on the literal meaning of the Word without having a body of teaching do not arrive at any understanding of divine truths: 9409, 9410, 10582. They fall into many errors: 10431. When people who have a passionate interest in the truth for its own sake reach adulthood and can see things with their own understanding, they do not simply rest in the theological tenets of their church but check them carefully against the Word to see whether they are true: 5402, 5432, 6047. Otherwise, what everyone believes could be declared true merely because someone else said so or because it was the religion of the person’s native soil, whether that person was born Jewish or Greek: ¹ 6047. Nevertheless, principles that have become matters of faith on the basis of the Word’s literal meaning should not be eliminated unless they have been fully examined: 9039.

[2] The church’s true body of teaching is made up of teachings focused on caring and faith: 2417, 4766, 10763, 10764. What makes a church is not a body of teaching about faith but living according to faith, which means caring: 809, 1798, 1799, 1834, 4468, 4672, 4766, 5826, 6637. A body of teaching is nothing unless its teachings are lived; anyone can see that they exist to be lived by, not just to be committed to memory and then given some thought: 1515, 2049, 2116. In today’s churches there is a body of teaching focused on faith and not on caring, and the body of teaching focused on caring has been consigned to the discipline known as moral theology: ² 2417. The church would be united if individuals were recognized as members of the church on the basis of their lives and therefore of their caring: 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452. How much more valid a body of teaching focused on caring is than a body of teaching focused on faith separated from caring: 4844. If we know nothing about caring, then we know nothing about heaven: 4783. If we have a body of teaching focused only on faith and not on caring at the same time, we lapse into errors: 2383, 2417, 3146, 3325, 3412, 3413, 3416, 3773, 4672, 4730, 4783, 4925, 5351, 7623–7627, 7752–7762, 7790, 8094, 8313, 8530, 8765, 9186, 9224, 10555 (which include some discussion of the errors in question). [In the ancient church,] people who were devoted teachings on faith but not living according faith, which means caring, were called “the uncircumcised” or “Philistines”: 3412, 3413, 3463, 8313, 8093, 9340. The early people had a body of teaching focused on love for the Lord and caring about their neighbor, and their teachings about faith were subsidiary to it: 2417, 3419, 4844, 4955.

[3] Once a body of teaching has been constructed by someone who is enlightened, it can then be supported by rational and factual means; in this way it is more fully understood, and this strengthens it: 2553, 2719, 3052, 3310, 6047. (There is more on this subject in The New Jerusalem and Its Teachings 51.) People who are committed to faith separated from caring want the church’s body of teaching simply to be believed without any rational inquiry: 3394.

[4] The practice of wisdom is not to support a dogma blindly but to see whether or not the dogma is true before convincing ourselves of its truth; this is what people do when they enjoy enlightenment: 1017, 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950. The light that is shed by convincing ourselves ³ is an earthly light, not a spiritual one, and it is accessible even to evil people: 8780. We can convince ourselves of anything, even something false, in such a way that it seems to be true: 2477, 5033, 6865, 8521.

Fotnoter: