My 2nd Sermon

The Centurion’s Faith in Jesus: The Healing Power of Love

Lessons:
Matthew 4:13-17, 23-25
Matthew 8:5-13
DP 330:5-7

(If you would like to look up the references that appear throughout this sermon, copy and paste them into Small Canon Search.)

I’ve often found it seemingly paradoxical that our church teaches that: ‘faith that saves is to believe in Jesus Christ’ (see TCR 3), while at the same time it teaches that: ‘people of all religions can be saved’ (see DP 330). If a Muslim or Buddhist who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ can be saved, then why does our church teach that: ‘faith that saves is to believe in Jesus Christ’? How does this work? A comprehensive understanding of the Heavenly Doctrines as revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg explains how this works. But rather than seeking to answer this question purely by doctrinal study, let’s first look at a story in the Gospels. A great story that illustrates this concept can be found in the story we just read of the centurion’s faith in Jesus, in Matthew chapter 8.
After the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, Jesus came down from the mountain and healed all kinds of people. In Capernaum, a Roman centurion came up to Jesus and asked Him to heal his servant. The Lord said He would come and do so. The centurion then said, ‘You don’t need to come; just say the word and he will be healed.’ And Jesus responded by saying in amazement to His disciples:
“Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:10-12)
The servant was then healed at that very moment because of the faith of the centurion.
It’s not hard to grasp the basic moral of this story: The Lord is telling us that mere membership in the church does not imply true faith, and that mere non-membership in the church does not imply a lack of true faith. The simple moral of the story is tolerance. This centurion was a Gentile Roman and not a Jew, and yet the Lord was implying that he had a greater faith than some of the Jews who were considered ‘sons of the kingdom.‘ Translated into modern times, the Lord is telling us that we should remember that a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Protestant and Swedenborgian are all just as capable of being saved and ‘reclining at table in the kingdom of heaven.’ This is one of the well-loved teachings of our church. Not many churches teach such universal religious tolerance. If we were to ask ourselves ‘What Would Jesus Do?‘ in this story, we could answer, ‘He would want everyone to be healed and saved,’ and so should we.
But that’s the easy moral of this story. Let’s ask ourselves a less obvious question: ‘What Would the Centurion Do?’ All the characters in the Bible represent us. So I can ask myself: Am I being like the ‘sons of the kingdom’ and ‘gnashing my teeth’ at people? Or am I being like the Gentile centurion with his amazing faith in the Lord. And what was it that made this centurion’s faith so amazing, so true, and so effective? What was it that was lacking in the faith of some of the Jews that put them at risk for being ‘thrown into the outer darkness’? In the end, this story gets us asking the question, ‘What is faith that saves after all? And do I have it?‘ We should not assume that simply because you are sitting there, and I am standing here, that we automatically have faith that saves.
In order to get at the answer to this question, let’s pick apart the details of this story. We know from the story as it is told in Luke, that this centurion was a good man. The Jews told Jesus that, “he is worthy to have You do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” (Luke 7:4,5) We might imagine this being like a German officer in occupied France, helping the French people repair a bombed church. This was a person who went out of his way to help his immediate neighbor. This was a person who had every opportunity to abuse his power over his neighbor, and instead he helped them. This was a person who truly practiced love to the neighbor; which really just means: love towards everyone.
But why did this Roman centurion have so much faith in Jesus? He wasn’t a Jew, so he probably wouldn’t have believed in any prophesies of the Messiah. If he was a religious man at all, he very likely worshiped Jupiter or Mars, or even the emperor in Rome. What was his faith in Jesus based on? Well, we know that both Jesus and this centurion lived in Capernaum (Matt. 4:13), so very likely this centurion had heard of, and probably even seen many of the healings and miracles of Jesus. After all, Jesus was literally famous for the power He had to heal disease and cast out demons (Matt. 4:24). So the centurion’s faith was quite simply based on the fact that he knew Jesus could heal his boy. True Christianity number 2 says, “To believe in Him is to have confidence that He saves.” The centurion had confidence that Jesus could save his servant. The name ‘Jesus’ actually means Savior, as we know from the Heavenly Doctrines (see AC 3004 and TCR 298) and from the literal sense of the Word where it says: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt 1:21). Jesus saves us from hell, which in the Word is represented by sickness, demon-possession and death.
As was said before, we also know from the Luke version of the story, that the centurion was a good man. The number from True Christianity goes on to say that “...and because only those who live good lives can have such confidence, this too is meant by believing in Him.” The centurion had true faith because he had confidence that Jesus could save his servant, and because he was a good man. So for us, the test of whether our faith is true or not could be: Do I have confidence that the Lord can and wants to save me spiritually? And, am I loving towards people? When I’m doing those things, I have true faith. When I’m not, I don’t have true faith.
Now lets look at some other details of this story. The centurion had a paralyzed servant at home. If we are the centurion, then what is our ‘paralyzed servant at home’? Apocalypse Revealed number 3 says that in the Word ‘servants’ represent truths, because true ideas serve goodness, as a servant serves his master. Also, a person’s ‘home’ represents his mind or his life. So as the centurion, we might recognize that we often want to do what is good, but we don’t always now how. We lack the truths that serve our desire to be good. Our servant is lying paralyzed at home.
Another detail is that the centurion lived in Capernaum. In a good sense, ‘Capernaum’ represents “the establishment of the church with the Gentiles that are in the good of life and that receive truths.” (AE 447:5) Earlier in Matthew, Capernaum is associated with this quote from Isaiah: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” (Matt 4:16) Jesus fulfilled this prophesy by living in Capernaum; by bringing light into the darkness. So it’s important for us to recognize that without the Lord living in our ‘town’, we too will live in darkness and falsity. When we find that our ‘servant at home’ is sick, we need to remember that the Lord lives right here in our ‘home town’, and we just need to turn to Him for help. That is part of faith that saves.
The Lord then tells His disciples that “many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” What is meant by the people from the ‘east and west’? This makes me think about how even today we refer to people of ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ philosophies. Often times these people don’t see eye to eye on things. But the Heavenly Doctrines tell us that, whatever the doctrine or philosophy, if a person is living a good life, they can get into heaven. In Secrets of Heaven it say that “‘many from the east and the west’ denote those who are in the knowledges and the life of good, and those who are in obscurity and ignorance; thus those who are within the church and those who are without it.” (AC 3708:13) Apocalypse Explained says that people from the east and west also represent “all who are in the good of love to the Lord and in the good of charity towards the neighbor” (AE 422:6). And that number goes on to say that “all who are in good are also in truths,” because as it says in the Doctrine of Life, “good loves truth.” (Life 65). What this means is that people who want to do good and love their neighbor tend to seek out philosophies that support that. Apparently, whether that is a Buddhist philosophy or a Christian philosophy is less important than whether or not they are loving God and loving the people around them.
“Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The Writings tell us that ‘Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ represent “the celestial things of love” (AC 2187:4), and also the Lord Himself (see AE 252:3, AE 768:13, AC 10442). So ‘to recline at table with them’ represents to be conjoined with the Lord, to make His love a part of us, and to have heaven within us (see AC 3832, 9527, 10442, AE 252:3), because as the Lord taught us in Luke, “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) So just like when we take the Holy Supper, ‘reclining at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ represents bringing the Lord’s love and wisdom into us so that heaven lives in us, and we live in heaven. The Lord is the “bread of life” (John 6:35) and we should be eating that bread. This isn’t just describing the process of getting to a place called ‘heaven’ after we die, this is describing the process of bringing heaven into our current natural lives. And the way we do that is by having faith like the centurion. The ‘faith that saves’ is a life of love towards others.
Sometimes it can also be useful to understand what we should be doing by looking at what we shouldn’t be doing. Sort of a ‘10 Commandments’ mentality. This is where we get into the last part of the Lord’s words to his disciples, “...while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Apocalypse Explained is says that: "‘kingdom’ in the Word signifies heaven and the church in respect to truths.” (AE 48:2) So the ‘sons of the kingdom’ are people who have the truths and therefore should have heaven in them, but in this case they don’t. These ‘sons of the kingdom’ get thrown into the ‘outer darkness.‘ In the Word ‘darkness’ symbolizes “falsity arising either from ignorance of truth, or from some false tenet of religion, or from a life of evil.” (AR 413:3) So how does somebody get from having the truth, to being in falsity? The key is in the last thing Jesus says: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Secrets of Heaven, we are told that ‘gnashing of teeth’ represents the “collision of falsities with the truths of faith.” (AC 9052:3) The Writings also say that people represented by the phrase ‘gnashing of teeth’ are people who engage in: contempt for others, hostility, derision, mockery, enmity, and jeering because a person who is like this “fights for his [or her] own falsity from love of self, [love] of learning, and [love] of fame.” (AE 556:18. See also HH 575) And that people who spiritually ‘gnash their teeth’ “appear to themselves to have power over everything.... and argue about everything.” (AR 435) When we have the truth, and at the same time no love for the people around us, then those truths get twisted into falsities. When we engage in doctrinal arguments and battles with other people in which we get nasty and mean, then we are like the ‘sons of the kingdom’ being thrown into outer darkness.
The centurion was not a ‘son of the kingdom.’ He didn’t know anything doctrinal about the Lord. But what he did know was that Jesus was a good Man who could save people from sickness and death. The centurion called Jesus ‘Lord,’ not because he had necessarily read the Scriptures and recognized the Messiah, but because he recognized that Jesus was the Master of healing and salvation. It is possible that he actually believed that Jesus was God (Jupiter) Himself (see AE 815:3). But more importantly, he recognized that Jesus represented the healing power of love, and that is what he had faith in. That is why people of all religions can be saved, because everyone can recognize and know the healing power of love. And since that is who the Lord is, then everyone can know the Lord. Swedenborg’s book Divine Providence states that “no one is saved because of knowing about the Lord. We are saved because we live by His commandments. Further, the Lord is known to everyone who believes in God because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth.” (DP 330:6)
So as you go into your week, ask yourself if you are ‘gnashing your teeth’ at people, or if you are ‘reclining at table‘ with the Lord’s love. Because what really matters in the church is that we live our lives with an acknowledgment of the Lord’s power to heal, and a love for the people around us, like the centurion did. This was the faith that Jesus marveled over. Because in the end, love is the faith that saves. And the salvation of the Lord’s healing love comes to us when we have a faith and life of love. “And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that very moment.”
Amen.

My First Sermon

"The Uncut Stones of the Temple"

Readings:
1 Kings 6:1-7
Matthew 7:24-27
Swedenborg's True Christianity, number 221

Today we are going to focus on the meaning of the whole uncut stones used in constructing the walls of the temple in Jerusalem, and how that applies to our life. The specific text that we will be focusing on is 1 Kings chapter 6 vs. 7 which says that “...the house itself...was built with unhewn stone, and no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.” (1 Kings 6:7)
There is some disagreement among Biblical scholars over whether these stones that were brought to build the temple were whole uncut stones, or whether they were simply cut to size and squared off-site at the quarry before arriving at the temple construction site. It makes a big difference in how we picture the temple in out minds, or in artwork. Many artists paint Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem as being built out of large square blocks of stone, much like the construction of the Bryn Athyn cathedral. But this may not be an accurate portrayal of the temple. It may be more accurate to portray the temple as being built of large irregularly-shaped stones, fitted together with mortar. Or maybe the temple was built of whole stones that were carefully fit together like puzzle pieces without mortar, like the dry-stone-wall construction of Machu Picchu in Peru. Whether it’s a difference between source texts, or because the Hebrew is simply unclear, there are differing opinions on this point. Fortunately we know from the Heavenly Doctrines as revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg that the temple was indeed made of unhewn or uncut stones, and that this was for a very specific and important reason.
But before we get to that reason, let’s place this passage in context. How does this story of the temple being built have meaning in our life? What is the spiritual meaning of the temple? Jesus Himself answered this question in John:
So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Break this temple in pieces and I will raise it in three days." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)
It is widely recognized in the Christian world that the body of Christ means the Church (see TCR 372), and that we should abide in the Lord and the Lord in us. (see John 15:4). We also know from John chapter one that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word. So from all of these passages we can see that the temple represents the Lord, the Word, the Church or religion, and that we should live our spiritual lives in that temple, and that we should build a house in us for the Lord to live.
So the construction of that temple refers to the construction of our religion; the place in us where the Lord can dwell. And King Solomon in this story represents the Lord in His first advent, or in the case of our current lives, he represents the first advent of the Lord into our hearts and minds. Once we have received the Lord into our lives, He can begin to regenerate us, which is the construction of the temple. The construction of the temple took seven years to accomplish, much like the seven days of creation that we know represents our spiritual rebirth. And though the entire project was overseen by Solomon (representing the Lord), we know that in the Word, "the builders are the people of the church” (HH 534). In other words: we are employed by the Lord to build our own religion.
When a building is being constructed, first the outside is constructed, then the inside is constructed. This is true for us too. First we need create external structures in our life, by developing good habits and spiritual practices. In time, those external structures can be filled with the actual goods of religion. In other words, we first have to force ourselves in a very mechanical and structured way to follow the truths of religion; such as obeying the 10 commandments. After that is accomplished we can begin to love to do those things. That external structure can only be founded on truths. That is why the exterior of the temple was built of hard stone (representing truths), and the interior of the temple was built of soft wood (representing good).
The Lord has told us in His Word that, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1), and also that “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matt 7:24-25) We also know that the Lord Himself is called “The Stone of Israel” (Genesis 49:24), and that as it says in John; the Lord is the Word (John 1:1,14).
These passages explain that we need to construct our religion based on the truths of the Lord’s Word. In the Word, truths are represented by rocks or stones, such as the two tablets of stone on which the 10 commandments were written. But these passages from the literal sense of the Word also illustrate the process of how we should construct our religion; namely by using the literal sense of the Word. Passages from the Word can be placed together to form spiritual ideas that we can live by, much like stones can be placed together to form a building that we can live in.
The Writings of Swedenborg tell us that whole unhewn stones represent the truths of the literal sense of the Lord’s Word (see AC 8940, 8941; AE 585). Hewn stones by contrast represent “what is artificial, and thus what is fictitious in worship; that is, what is of man's own or of the figment of his thought and heart.” (AC 1298:2) and also “whatever of doctrine, religion, and worship is from self-intelligence” (AE 585:11). Because everything can have both a good and bad correspondence, rocks or stones can represent either truth or falsity; and in this case a hewn stone represents falsity from our own intelligence. (see AR 847) Taken to the extreme we can see how evil comes out of this when we think about how an intricately hewn stone could become an idol, and could achieve the complete opposite result from the one intended by building the temple.
A religious fabrication, produced out of self-intelligence and not derived from the Word, is meant in the internal sense by 'idols' and 'strange gods', by 'molten images' and 'graven images'. Products of the self are nothing else; for in themselves they are dead, even though venerated as living. (AC 8941)

The reason why hewn stones represent this, is because of what iron tools represent. “By these instruments are signified such things as are of self-intelligence, and which devise.” (AC 8942) Iron tools are an extension of our hands which are extensions of our own will and our own understanding, and when these stem from love of one's self above all else, it is dangerous to apply them to the Lord’s Word. (see AC 10406:11) The Writings say that, "‘iron’ signifies truth in ultimates, which is called sensual truth, which when separated from rational and spiritual truth, is turned into falsity.” (AR 847) When we take truth only at it’s sensual, literal level, we can be tempted to abuse it. We could take one truth out of context and repeatedly hit someone over the head with it to drive home a point we want to make, much like chiseling at a stone with sharp iron. That is not what the Lord wants us to do with His truths. His truths are meant to be gently, quietly placed together to build a house suitable for worship which is the life of charity.
As was said earlier, the stones in the walls of the temple specifically represent the truths of the literal sense of the Word. Like rocks these truths can be very irregular at times. They can be bulky. They can be heavy and hard to carry. They can have sharp points and rough edges. When we’re trying to fit them into the philosophy of how we live our lives, it can be very tempting to take the iron tools of our limited selfish intellect and shave off some corners. For example ‘This statement about the Lord wanting the children of Israel to kill Midianites in the book of Numbers, doesn’t fit with Jesus telling us to love our enemies in Matthew. I think I’ll just trim the corner off so they fit together better. Or maybe I’ll just leave this stone out; it really doesn’t seem to fit.’ In the past, the Christian church fell into the error of splitting God into three persons, almost like splitting what should have been one whole stone into three stones to make them fit better in the walls of the temple.
Despite the fact that the Lord warns us not to use our limited selfish intellect to change the stones of the literal sense of the Word, He still wants us to work with these stones. We still need to do the work of actually piecing them together into the walls of a temple that will hold the life of charity. The Lord does not do this for us. And so we are told in the Writings,
That by "'a worker in stone' is signified the good of love, or the will of one who is regenerate, [and that this] is because the good of love works in a person while they are being regenerated, and disposes the truths with them into order; and afterward, when they have been regenerated, it keeps them in their order." (AC 9846)
If we have a love for the Lord and a love for the neighbor in our hearts, then that will guide us in knowing how these strangely shaped stones of the Lord’s Word can be pieced together to form a beautiful temple; the life of religion.
Our job as good workers of stone, is to trust that the whole stones of the literal sense of the Lord’s Word do fit together to form the walls of the church in us. Whether they fit because of the conjunctive power of mortar (which represents the good of charity (see AC 1300)), or because the Lord gives us the spiritual enlightenment to see how the puzzle-like stones fit together, the important thing is that we do not attempt to change or modify the truths of the literal sense of the Word with our own intellect. We need to trust that our religion can be based on those truths.
When we do this, we will develop a good trusting relationship with the Lord. We will also gain a sense of contentment. This is why the building of the temple was relatively silent, because of “the meaning of 'being silent' as resting content and... refusing to think or believe that [we] achieve anything by [our] own powers” (AC 8176)
Once the external structure of our religion has been constructed out of the truths of the literal sense of the Word, we can begin the interior decoration of that temple. Strangely enough, though the external walls of the temple had to be built from unhewn stones, the interior walls of the temple were built out of intricately carved wood. Iron tools must have been used on that wood! So how do we reconcile this? The Lord does not want us to be robots, blindly obeying His will. He wants us to use our understanding, and our sense of self, for good. A common saying in our church, taken from the book True Christianity, is that ‘Now it is permitted to enter with understanding into the mysteries of faith.” (TCR 508) The Lord permits the use of our 'iron tools' on the rational and good things of the interiors of the temple. But those things must first be given structure and stability by the unhewn stones of the exterior walls: the truths of the literal sense of the Word. Without that structure and protection, the beautifully and delicately carved wood of the interior of the temple would be destroyed by the elements of nature, and simply fall to pieces.
So think about your own religion. Is it constructed out of whole unhewn stones? Is it constructed out of a knowledge of the literal sense of the Word? Are you a good worker in stone? Is your construction design based on love to the Lord and love to the neighbor? Think about these things the next time you see a stone wall, and remember the Lord’s words in Matthew: “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matt 7:24-25)
Amen.

The Lord's Divine Truth in the Word

A Study of the Nature of the Language of the Word, and the Process of Deriving Doctrine from the Word.

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) “The Word in this passage is the Divine truth that is in the Lord and from the Lord, so here it is also called the light, which is Divine truth.” (HH 137)

The Word is the Lord’s Divine truth. What we call the ‘Bible’ - or the literal sense of the Word - is the container for this Divine truth. (See TCR 210) By reading the physical words on the paper, we can develop an understanding of the Lord’s Divine truth. This provides a natural basis for the Lord’s immediate presence with us. And so it is extremely important to read the Word.
But “the Word is not understandable without a body of teaching.” (TCR 225) This is because the Divine truth lies hidden within the actual physical words of the literal sense. If one thinks about it, it would be impossible for the Lord’s infinite truth to be fully represented by finite words, unless there were levels or dimensions of truth within truth.
In the New Church, the ‘body of teaching’ which interprets the Word is drawn from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, who, by being enlightened directly from the Lord, drew it from the letter of the Word.

What are the levels or dimensions of truth in the Word? The highest level of truth in the Word is the truth that relates to the Lord and love to the Lord. This is the celestial or heavenly sense. The next level of truth in the Word is the truth that relates to loving one’s neighbor. This is the spiritual sense. Both of these senses are internal to the literal or natural sense of the letter. The natural sense of the Word includes the actual letters of the Bible, as well as a literal understanding of the stories in an historical and moral way. (See AC 3712, De Verbo 35, TCR 212). Because the spiritual and celestial sense both reside within the natural sense, there are often what seem to be redundant dualities or trines representing these two or three senses. Phrases like “void and empty” or be “fruitful and multiply” reflect this reality.
It is these internal meanings that make the natural Word holy, (see TCR 200) because it would be impossible for finite letters to be equivalent to infinite truth if this were not so. But it is in the literal sense of the Word that the fullness of that holiness resides, (see TCR 214) because in the literal sense is contained truth for humanity on every level. Thus it is that Divine doctrine exists in all levels of the Word (AC 3712).

The literal sense of the Word is like the body of a person, while the internal or spiritual sense is like the soul of a person. (see AC 2311, SS 5). We can’t get to know a person’s soul without their body. The body is the means whereby their soul is knowable. Also, without a body, a person’s soul would not be able to function in this world. The soul is the reason why a person’s body is alive. All these things are also true of the internal and literal senses of the Word. And just like the truths about a person’s soul don’t always match with the truths about a person’s body (for example a really good person could look physically ugly), the internal truths of the Word don’t always shine through the literal sense in an immediately obvious way. But the more we try to get to know a person in an accepting and loving way, the more we see their true nature shining through any physical ugliness, quirky behaviors or confusing way of talking. The same is true with the Word. The more familiar we become with the entire literal sense of the Word, from a sincere desire to understand the Lord’s goodness and truth, the more that internal truth will shine through.
When we are getting to know a person, we principally get to know their soul by means of the things they say and do. The things they say and do are most often accomplished by their face and hands. And so it is also true that we especially get to know the internal sense of the Word through its ‘face and hands.’
"The doctrine of genuine truth may also be fully drawn from the literal sense of the Word; for the Word in that sense is like a person clothed, but whose face and hands are uncovered. Everything in the Word pertaining to man’s life, and thus to his salvation, is there unveiled. The rest is veiled; and in many places where it is veiled it shines through as the face appears through a thin veil of silk. Moreover, as the truths of the Word increase from the love of them, and are co-ordinated by love, they shine more and more clearly through their coverings and become more obvious. But this also it brought about by means of doctrine." (SS 55, see also TCR 229)

So the body of teaching that we need in order to fully understand the internal sense of the Word, still “has to be drawn from the Word’s literal meaning.” (TCR 225) But how is that to be done when the literal sense of the Word is so often confusing, strange, and contradicting? The same way that it is to be done when dealing with a person. We should look for the good in that person, or in other words, we should look for the Lord’s goodness in the Word. “Divine truth needed for a body of teaching becomes manifest only to those who have enlightenment from the Lord.” (TCR 225)

What is enlightenment? In a natural sense it means that a person can see because there is light and not darkness. In a spiritual sense, it means that a person can understand truth because of a connection with the Lord through heaven, and not with hell. “Enlightenment comes to people who love truths because they are true and who make them useful in their lives, because these people are in the Lord and the Lord is in them.” (TCR 231) So in one sense enlightenment comes with an attitude adjustment; when we choose to think positively, rather than negatively. But how does this work?
"We can understand how this happens by perceiving that for vertical levels, one is above the other, with the earthly level, the terminal one, acting like an inclusive membrane for the two higher levels. As the earthly level is raised toward a higher level, then, the higher activates that outer earthly level from within and enlightens it. The enlightenment is actually happening because of the light of the higher levels from within, but it is received gradually by the earthly level that envelops and surrounds them, with greater clarity and purity as it ascends. That is, the earthly level is enlightened from within, from the light of the higher, distinct levels; but on the earthly level itself, it happens gradually." (DLW 256)

So it is not simply by reading the physical words of the Bible that we gain enlightenment in spiritual truths, but by mentally focussing on searching for the Lord’s goodness and truth in those words. This mental focus is what opens our minds to heaven which is where the enlightenment and understanding truly comes from. The understanding of the literal sense of the Word is like a container which, if turned in the right direction, can hold spiritual truth from the Lord, but if not turned in the right direction, remains empty.
Emanuel Swedenborg had this focus, and so he was enlightened by the Lord as to the spiritual meaning of the Word in a very detailed way. His spiritual eyes were opened to the true nature of the Sacred Scripture, much like the Lord’s disciples’ minds were opened after His resurrection. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.... Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27,45) Swedenborg was appointed by the Lord to be enlightened in this way so that he could provide the means for a new revelation of truth. This new revelation is the second coming of the Lord as was prophesied by the Lord in John: “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.” (John 16:25) In the Writings of Swedenborg we are told about the nature of the language used in the Word. The ‘figures of speech’ are alluding to the symbolic language of the Word. The concept of symbolic speech is not a new one, since the Lord Himself explained some of His own parables. But the finer details of that ultimate parable known as the Bible, is explained by Swedenborg to be a language of correspondences, representations and significations.

‘Correspondences’ describe the relationship between spiritual things and natural things. All natural things exist because of spiritual things; but the two exist in different dimensions known as discrete degrees. What we think of as natural realities are really just manifestations of spiritual realities. Water, for example, is a natural manifestation of truth. Water ‘co-responds’ to truth, because they respond together; they respond in the same way. Water quenches our natural thirst and cleans our physical bodies, the same way that truth quenches our spiritual thirst and cleans our spiritual bodies. “Correspondence is the appearing of the internal in the external.” (AC 5423). Water behaves in this way because truth behaves in this way.
While ‘correspondence’ describes the very real relationship between spiritual and natural things, ‘representations’ describe the appearance, manifestation, or image on the natural plane. (see AC 4044) In the stories of the Word, water represents truth. ‘Signification’ means that the words themselves in the Bible represent things. For example: water corresponds to truth, and so therefore water represents truth, and the word ‘water’ in the Word signifies truth. (see AC 2899) “Correspondences, representatives, and significatives conjoin the natural world with the spiritual.” (AC 7290)
The entire divinely inspired Word was written using this kind of language, and so it contains within it Divine truth, because it is multi-dimensional. Knowledge of correspondences allows us to, as it were, break the code of the literal sense. But we must be careful with this knowledge:
"You might think that we could gain a body of genuinely true teaching by exploring the Word’s spiritual meaning through the study of correspondences. In fact, a body of teaching is not gained through that meaning; it is only enlightened and corroborated by that meaning, for... people who know a few correspondences are capable of falsifying the Word be connecting and applying correspondences to support some preconceived idea already lodged in their mind." (TCR 230)

So once again we come back to the important fact that we must always go to the Lord for enlightenment. It is only the Lord that can open our eyes to Divine doctrine; the genuine truth in His Word. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13)

How to apply the 10 Commandments

I've been working on developing a chart for how to understand and apply the 10 commandments, based on some key doctrines I've been learning from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Doctrines relating to the Lord's mercy, His love for the human race, and the true consequences of our choices and actions. This study stems from the Writings' assertion that it is the love of adultery, not necessarily the act of adultery, that condemns a person to hell (which - in more accurate terms, because the Lord personally condemns nobody to hell - means that a person will choose to live in hell.) The act of adultery is bad and harmful to oneself and one's neighbor, but it does not condemn a person unless they love it. (See Conjugial Love number 423 and also the chapter on 'Adultery in its Kinds and Degrees') I began to see how this holds true for all of the 10 commandments.

So I've started creating a chart with five columns. In the center is the 10 Commandments themselves. The column to the right of that is a column entitled, "Bad Things To Do Which Are Repentable and Forgiveable and Won't Necessarily Lead to Hell" I know it's a pretty long title, but there it is. In this column are listed the actual acts of disobeying the 10 Commandments: Killing, Committing Adultery, Lying, Stealing, Coveting, etc. These acts in themselves are bad, but won't necessarily send a person to hell. A person can repent of all of the acts of disobeying the 10 Commandments, and with the Lord's Divine Mercy get themselves to Heaven.

The column to the right of that one is called "Things That Will Lead To Hell." In this column are listed the loves of disobeying the 10 Commandments, as opposed to simply breaking them in act. Loving to kill, loving to commit adultery, loving to steal, loving to lie, etc. These things will send a person to hell, not simply the acts in themselves.

The column to the left of the center column is called, "Good Things To Do Which Won't Necessarily Lead To Heaven." In that column are listed all of the acts of literally obeying the 10 Commandments. Going to church, never taking the Lord's name in vain, not committing adultery in act, not killing, not stealing, not lying, etc. These are great things to do. But all of these things could be done from a sense of honor, reputation and personal gain. They could be done in act, but without a love for them. They are good in the sense that they keep a person from harming their neighbor. But if they aren't taken to heart, in themselves they will not get a person into Heaven.

The column to the left of that is called "Things That Will Lead To Heaven." In this column are listed all of the loves of obeying the 10 Commandments. Loving the Lord, loving one's neighbor, loving marriage, being honest, being content, etc. These are the things that lead to Heaven.

This is important to remember because we need to be careful about making spiritual judgments. If a person disobeys a particular commandments, we cannot assume that that act is filled with a love of Hell. Likewise if a person obeys a particular commandment we cannot assume that that act is filled with a love of Heaven. People in Heaven are filled with a genuine love of the Lord and the neighbor. People in Hell are filled with a genuine hatred of the Lord and the neighbor. The acts that we do or do not commit here on Earth, in themselves do not determine those loves. Good acts are definitely good. Bad acts are definitely bad. But salvation and condemnation are bigger than that.

The 10 Commandments are given primarily for us to judge ourselves. They are the guide for telling us where we are on our spiritual path.

Fluency in the Internal Sense

Children need to learn how to read the literal sense of the Word, much like adults need to learn how to read the internal sense of the Word. When children are learning to read they often carefully and painstakingly sound out and pronounce every word without much expression. “The... ball... rolled... down... the... hill.” Our process is very similar. We carefully and painstakingly sound out the correspondences of the internal sense. “Horse means understanding... chariot means doctrine... sword means truth...” In time children come to learn to read with more expression, and we can recognize that they understand the meaning of the word and the story that they tell, and are no longer simply decoding the sounds within the letters. The same can eventually be true of us as adults. As we get more fluent in the genuine truths and the correspondences of the internal sense of the Word, we too have the hope of reading the internal sense more fluently and with expression, as we begin to understand the meaning of the spiritual and heavenly stories there.

What does the 'flock' eat?

In the Christian world a minister is often called a 'pastor' referring to a 'shepherd' and the congregation is often called his 'flock.' This is for the reason that the pastor's job is to feed his flock spiritual food. But it's important to remember that in this analogy, what he is feeding them is not food that he has made or prepared, but rather it is straight from the Lord, available to all, as the grass of the fields is to sheep. The pastor's job is simply to lead the flock to where they can find and eat food for themselves; in the pastures of the Lord.

Loving our Neighbors in Heaven

In the doctrines of our church there is the concept that when we read the literal sense of the Word, whether we understand it or not, it makes the angels happy. For a long time I have struggled with the concept. Isn’t the purpose of reading the Word for us to gain an understanding of the Lord and His Truths? Why does it matter if it makes the angels happy, if it doesn’t do anything for our own spiritual lives? And while I still believe that reading the Word with understanding is preferable and should be the goal, I have gained a new perspective on the additional use of angels being made happy by the reading of the Word, even if it is without our own understanding. It comes down to this: loving the neighbor. Reading the Word makes the angels happy, and this is good because it is an expression of love to the neighbor. The angels are our neighbors! And this scenario helps to illustrate two important truths of our church: 1. That the angels are people like us, and that thus they fall into the category of the ‘neighbor.’ And 2. that the angels are present with us, here and now, as opposed to being distant and ‘up’ in Heaven. Heaven is all around us, and therefore Heaven’s residents are our neighbors. Heaven is full of people, and thus we should love them as we are commanded to love all our neighbors. I find that often I believe that angels don’t need our love. After all they have other angels to love them; and in a much more perfect capacity than we are often capable of loving people. But here on earth we provide a very important function in that we are the foundation of Heaven. We ‘ground’ the Heavens. And even though we are not as regenerate as the angels are, we are capable of serving them as our neighbors. This includes reading the literal sense of the Word here on Earth. That is one of the ways which we can express love for our neighbors in Heaven.