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:

8694. 'They come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbour' means that revealed truth at this time brought about the arrangement existing among them. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming to me', when this refers to God's truth represented by 'Moses', as coming for advice about what their will and actions ought to be, as above in 8692; and from the meaning of 'judging between a man and his neighbour' as the arrangement existing among truths, arranging being meant by 'judging', see above in 8685. It follows that revealed truth brings the arrangement about, for just above it says that the people came to him to inquire of God, and immediately below that he makes known to them God's judgement and laws.

[2] The term 'revelation' is used to mean the light that comes when the Word is read, and perception then; for this is the way that people who are governed by good and desire truth are taught from the Word. But those who are not governed by good cannot be taught from the Word; they can only be made stronger in whatever they have learned since early childhood, whether that consists in truths or in falsities. The reason why revelation comes to those who are governed by good but not to those who are ruled by evil is that every single thing in the Word refers in the internal sense to the Lord and His kingdom, and the angels present with a person perceive this level of meaning in the Word. Their perception is communicated to the person governed by good who reads the Word and desires truth from an affection for it; through them comes the light he has and his perception. For with those governed by good and consequently by an affection for truth the understanding part of the mind has been opened into heaven, and their soul, that is, their internal man, is in fellowship with the angels. It is altogether different with those who are not governed by good and so do not desire truth out of an affection springing from that good. To these heaven is closed.

[3] But what that revelation is like which comes to those governed by good and consequently by an affection for truth is not easy to describe. It is not something overt, nor is it something altogether hidden; rather it is a kind of inclination, coming from within, to accept that a thing is true, or not to accept if it is not true. When it is the inclination to accept, the mind is at rest and is tranquil; and in that state there exists the acknowledgement that goes with faith. All this comes about as a result of the influx of heaven from the Lord. For from the Lord by way of heaven there comes the light which pours into the understanding, which is the eye of inward sight, and enlightens it. What are now made visible in that light are truths, for that light actually is Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord; and this Truth is the light in heaven, as has been shown often