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

7. The Word is understood only by people who are enlightened. Our rational capacity cannot grasp things that are divine; it cannot even grasp things that are spiritual unless it is enlightened by the Lord: 2196, 2203, 2209, 2654. This means that only enlightened people can understand the Word: 10323. The Lord makes it possible for people who are enlightened to understand what is true and to sort out things that seem contradictory: 9382, 10659. Understood on a literal level, the Word is not consistent and often seems self-contradictory (9025); therefore people who are not enlightened can interpret it and constrain it to support all kinds of opinions and heresies and to favor all kinds of worldly and bodily ¹ loves (4783, 10330, 10400). We gain enlightenment from the Word if we read it out of a love for what is true and good, but not if we read it out of a love for fame, profit, or prestige, and therefore out of a love for ourselves: 9382, 10548, 10549, 10550. We are enlightened if we are committed to living good lives and therefore are affected by what is true: 8694. We are enlightened if our inner self has been opened—that is, if our inner self is capable of being raised into heaven’s light: 10400, 10402, 10691, 10694. Enlightenment is an actual opening of the deeper reaches of our minds as well as a raising of them into heaven’s light: 10330. If we regard the Word as holy, then without our knowing it something holy flows in from within us—that is, through our inner self from the Lord: 6789. We are enlightened and see truths in the Word if we are being led by the Lord, but not if we are leading ourselves: 10638. We are being led by the Lord when we love what is true because it is true; that is, when we love to live by divine truths: 10578, 10645, 10829. The Word is brought to life for us depending on the amount of life there is in our love and faith: 1776. The products of a self-oriented intelligence ² have no life in them, because nothing good comes from our self-centeredness: 8941, 8944. We cannot be enlightened if we have thoroughly convinced ourselves of false teachings: 10640.

[2] It is our understanding that is enlightened: 6608, 9300. Our understanding is what receives truth: 6222, 6608, 10659. For every teaching of the church, how well we understand it depends on the nature of the concepts we have of it in our intellect and in our thinking: 3310, 3825. As long as we are living in this world, our concepts are earthly because we are thinking on an earthly level. However, there are spiritual concepts hidden within them if we are passionately interested in the truth for its own sake, and these concepts become ours after death: 3310, 5510, 6201, 10236, 10240, 10551. If we cannot conceive of something in our intellect and in our thinking, we cannot comprehend it, either: 3825. Our concepts of matters of faith are disclosed in the other life, and angels ³ there see what our concepts are like; we are then united with others in keeping with our concepts, provided that they are rooted in love and affection: 1869, 3310, 5510, 6200, 6201, 8885. This means that the Word is understood only by rational people, since without some concept of a subject and some rational insight, “believing” is only keeping in our memory some statement that we do not comprehend or love. This is not believing: 2533. It is the literal meaning of the Word that is enlightened for us: 3436, 9824, 9905, 10548.

Fotnoter:

10694. 'And they were afraid to approach him' means that they could not bear an outward form of the Church, worship, and the Word such as this. This is clear from the meaning of 'being afraid to approach' as not being able to bear something, for those who cannot bear interior things are afraid to approach them; and from the representation of 'Moses' as the outward form that the Word, the Church, and worship take, containing what is inward, dealt with in 10563, 10571, 10607, 10614. The situation in all this is that those whose interest lies solely in things of the Church, worship, and the Word on an outward level devoid of what is inward cannot bear interior things. The reason for this is that those whose interest lies in outward things devoid of what is inward are ruled by selfish and worldly love, and consequently see by an inferior light, called natural illumination. But those whose interest lies in things of the Church, worship, and the Word on an inward level as well as those on an outward one are governed by love towards the neighbour and love to the Lord, and consequently see by the light of heaven. And since the two kinds of love are opposites, and consequently the two kinds of light are as well, one cannot bear the other. For when heavenly love, that is, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, flows into earthly loves, which are self-love and love of the world, it induces feelings of agony like the throes of death; and when heavenly light flows into worldly light, it induces thick darkness and consequently stupidity. So it is that an outward form devoid of inward content cannot bear any outward form when it does have an inner content. Since the Jewish nation was like this they could not bear to hear about the Lord, or about love and faith in Him, which are the interior things of the Word, the Church, and worship. These then are the things which are meant when it says that the children of Israel were afraid to approach Moses because the skin of his face gleamed. What it is that 'the skin of Moses' face' means, see above in 10691.