Out of Egypt

The passages from the Writings cited in this paper contain the expression “the Writings” where the original text has “the Word.” This substitution is legitimate if one is willing to grant these two fundamental propositions:

Proposition 1: The Writings are the third portion that completes the Threefold Word (i.e., Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Testaments).

Proposition 2: When the Writings makes assertions about the Word, the statements apply to the Threefold Word as a whole.

Proposition 1 has been the Divine Doctrine received and nurtured by the men of the General Church Academy Movement at the end of the 19^th century. Proposition 2 has been the Divine Doctrine received and nurtured by the men of the General Church Dutch Branch, as documented in De Hemelsche Leer publication in the 1930s. The two propositions together strengthen each other and form the basis of spiritual enlightenment provided by the Lord through His Second Coming in the Writings.

Anyone in the world today can be enlightened by the Writings and prepared for a heavenly life by simply following these two conditions: (A) To accept these two Fundamental Propositions while reading the Writings; (B) To apply what is understood therefrom to one’s daily willing and thinking.

By following Condition A (accepting the two Fundamental Propositions), we are enlightened by the Lord. This means that our understanding is elevated from the natural into the spiritual. When we read the sentences of the Writings, we can begin to perceive the more interior truths that are contained within it. By following Condition B (applying doctrine to life), we begin to be regenerated.

Enlightenment and regeneration must go together. No one can be regenerated without enlightenment. This is because regeneration is the up-building of a new will and this cannot be done except by spiritual ideas from the Writings. Regeneration begins in adult life, after reformation. Until regeneration begins, we are in an unregenerate state, including those born and raised within the New Church. However, at one point, we complete reformation as an adult, and begin reading the Writings as the Word that is to guide us in our regeneration efforts. One cannot be regenerated without the Writings as the Word to guide us.

Enlightenment is a gradual process and progresses to the perception of more and more interior truths. This gradual elevation of the understanding is proportional to the gradual regeneration of the will. There was a historical controversy in the General Church that attended the birthing of Proposition 2, which is that the Writings have an internal spiritual sense just like the Old and New Testaments. Several forms of opposition and resistance emerged to combat the notion that the Letter of the Writings are merely natural and that in order to understand it spiritually, one needed to apply to it the orderly and systematic methods of extraction taught in the Writings for the Old and New Testaments. There was also some anxiety or concern about the idea that understanding the deeper layers of the Writings was dependent on one’s progress in regeneration. This appeared threatening and a source of disturbance in the Church since some individuals might claim a deeper understanding than others and try to impose their doctrine on others who could not perceive these same things in “the plain teachings of the Letter.” The peace would thus be broken as one faction battled against another for supremacy and dominion.

Today, more than seven decades after the controversy in the General Church regarding the Dutch Group, a more mature and objective understanding of it has become possible. Whereas before only a political and historical view on the Dutch Controversy was in the forefront, a new view is now possible as we focus in on the objective details that have been presented as an elucidation of the plain teachings of the Writings. Our generation today needs to become informed regarding the details of the Dutch Thesis. This is an objective perspective, a scientific focus, a rational examination with a positive bias and sympathy for the goal.

While we immerse ourselves in the political and historical focus, seeing the Dutch proposals as a “controversy,” we are limited in our objectivity by the absence of a positive bias or affirmative attitude. As the Writings teach, no spiritual truth can be seen by anyone when approaching it with a negative bias (xx). To examine the Dutch Doctrine with a negative bias one cannot possibly see any spiritual truth it may have, even assuming it were to be genuine. The presence of a positive bias or affirmative stance in advance, prior to examination, is necessary for anyone to see any spiritual truth. Our generation has been given a new opportunity for objectivity, as the passage of decades has freed us from the historical and political context. Now for the first time, we have the rational power to examine the Dutch Thesis with a positive bias, putting ourselves in a rational position to actually see what’s there.

In particular, there is a clearer understanding today of the structural properties of the Threefold Word. The Lord’s Divine Rational descends through the three heavens in successive lower degrees. As it descends, Divine Truth is accommodated to the minds of the angels in the three heavens. This accommodation process is by means of higher to lower correspondences. The spiritual angels of the second heaven can only understand by correspondence what the celestial angels understand. Similarly, the natural angels of the first heaven can only understand by correspondence what the spiritual angels understand. Similarly, the natural mind on earth reading the Writings can only understand by correspondence what the natural angels understand. Clearly it cannot be that the natural mind on earth reading the literal of the Writings, can see and understand what the angelic spirits of the first heaven understand and see when they read the Writings. The natural angels understand the sentences of the Writings spiritually, while the natural mind on earth understands the Writings naturally. This is very clear.

Therefore, the natural mind reading the Letter of the Writings can understand only in a natural way. Since the Writings contain spiritual topics like God, heaven, and regeneration, the natural mind understands these spiritual topics naturally, not spiritually. But the natural angels of the first heaven understand these spiritual topics, spiritually. Hence it is that the Writings in the Letter are composed of pure correspondences, and these are called natural-rational correspondences. They are a degree above the correspondences in which the New Testament is written, which are called natural-sensuous correspondences.

Clearly then, the structural properties of the Threefold Word require that its sentences be written in correspondences that relate to each other by discrete degrees. The highest degree of the natural mind is called natural-rational, and this is the mind that is opened and formed by studying, understanding, and loving the Letter of the Writings. Later on we undergo reformation and then begin our regeneration. At that po0int we are enlightened by the Lord by means of the opening and formation of interior-natural mind, which is also called the natural-spiritual or the spiritual-natural. This is the mind in which live the angelic spirits of the first heaven. When, during regeneration, the Lord opens our interior-natural mind, we experience a conscious elevation of our understanding. This new perception is the result of being enlightened. Enlightenment is the operation of the interior-natural mind, which is formed within the natural-rational mind.

You can see that the new organ we have is more interior than the natural-rational understanding. The natural-rational understanding of the literal meaning of the Writings is called “rational truth” (xx). This forms a duality with “intellectual truth” which is formed by the Lord in the interior mind, while “rational truth” is formed by the self in the external mind. The Lord as a Child had constructed for Himself rational truths out of the scientifics of cognitions He gathered from reading the Hebrew Word (xx). Then He instructed Himself from His inmost Divine that these rational truths based on the Letter of the Word were going to be destroyed, and that He will receive instead, higher cognitions from the celestial of Himself, and that these higher cognitions are genuine, while the lower ones are not. And so the Lord grieved like a child who is told by parents he must give up some cherished toy in order to advance in mental development (xx).

Our regeneration recapitulates the steps of the Lord’s regeneration, which is called Glorification, by which He made his Human one with His Divine Essence (xx). We are saved by becoming spiritual through regeneration, and this must involve enlightenment, for without enlightenment there is no regeneration (xx). Enlightenment refers to the elevation of the understanding from a lower to a higher degree. This is also what happened to the Lord when He became conscious in His external man as a Child (“Abram”) that He must give up remaining in the scientifics of cognitions He had gathered from the Letter of the Word. Similarly, the New Church individual today grieves when told of the Dutch Thesis, which is that we are to leave behind us the Letter of the Writings, almost as if the literal were “destroyed” (xx), and to be open to the inner sense of the Letter, which is the spiritual sense.

We can now see what intellectual truth is, as also that with the Lord intellectual truth opened the way to celestial things. Truth in the memory [verum scientificum] is one thing; rational truth is another; and intellectual truth is another; they succeed one another. Truth in the memory is a matter of memory-knowledge; rational truth is this truth confirmed by reason; intellectual truth is conjoined with an internal perception that it is so. This intellectual truth existed with the Lord in His childhood, and with Him opened the way to celestial things. (AC 1496)

Enlightenment is the journey from rational truth, which is based on the external literal sense of the Writings, to intellectual truth, which is based on the internal sense. The external literal sense of the Writings and its rational understanding, requires the immersion of our thinking in natural-rational correspondences. But the internal spiritual sense of the Writings and its rational understanding, requires the immersion of our thinking in spiritual-rational correspondences. These two are a duality, one within the other, or, one a discrete degree above the other. You can see objectively that this new more internal level of thinking and cognitive operation cannot take place in the same region or organ of the mind as the external one. Therefore before it can happen, the Lord must create, open, and form a new organ called the interior-natural mind (xx). This organ is formed within the natural-rational mind, that is, a discrete degree above. Now it is possible for us to be conscious of a higher level of correspondence called spiritual-rational truths or appearances of truth (xx).

To be enlightened and thus to perceive the internal sense of the Writings means nothing else than to become conscious of the new organic activity in the interior-natural mind. Now a simultaneous dual process happens in the mind when we read the Writings. The external of this process is the natural-rational understanding of the literal sentences. The internal of this process is the spiritual-rational understanding of the literal sentences. The first gives us conscious semantic content constructed out of units called natural-rational correspondences, while the second process gives us conscious semantic content constructed out of units called spiritual-rational correspondences. The later is within the former, and the two cannot exist separately, any more than diamonds can exist separately from carbon.

The natural-rational correspondences which compose the Letter of the Writings are first to be acquired in time and mental development. This instruction forms in our mind the scientifics of the Writings, of the Heavenly Doctrines, of the Doctrine of the Church, of the Doctrine of Life. All these are implanted in the form of natural-rational correspondences. This is our familiarity and love of the Writings by which we develop our rational understanding of the universe and of the Lord’s Kingdom. This is the level at which we understand the Church’s teachings and sermons, and this is the level that serves for the education and formation of our rational and moral mind and character.

Then, sometime in young adulthood we are empowered to undergo reformation, by which we reaffirm our faith and worship of the Letter of the Writings, and apply its doctrines and principles to our daily life, compelling ourselves to clean out our act of daily living and thinking. Everything in the mind must be realigned to fit and concord with our understanding of the Writings. This is reformation and lasts for months and is very intense and conscious and passionate and enthusiastic. Then, this passion is consummated and we begin the real work of regeneration, and its struggles and pains.

Progress in our regeneration is gradual. In order for the process to proceed, we must be given by the Lord more interior truths by which to overcome our spiritual temptations. If you examine your own case, you will see that your progress in shunning evils as sins falters and fails over and over again, despite your quoting to yourself from the literal of the Writings. This is because the literal of the Writings, when emptied of its internal, is dead and has no power of intellectual or spiritual truth, let alone celestial. Therefore the Lord must provide enlightenment, or else all is lost.

This is why the Lord had to give up in grief, His beloved external attachment to the Letter of the Hebrew Word. This had no power to effect the Lord’s Glorification because it had no power against the hells which were in His human from the Virgin. Only spiritual-rational correspondences, called “intellectual truth,” had this power. Similarly for us, the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings have no power to save us, but only the spiritual-rational correspondences that are contained within the natural-rational correspondences. The Lord therefore creates a new organ within the natural-rational mind, and this spiritual-natural organ operates to give us conscious awareness of the appearances of Divine Truth in a higher degree, in a the degree in which are the angelic spirits of the first heaven.

There is no mystical, mysterious, or subjective enlightenment, but only intellectual, organic, and objective enlightenment, as part of the necessary operation for regeneration by every individual.

The angels of the three heavens must therefore have their own Word since they dwell in different discrete levels of the mind and the spiritual world. The Letter of the Word in the third heaven contains the celestial-rational truths hidden within that Letter. The Letter of the Word in the second heaven contains both the celestial-rational truths and the spiritual-rational truths. This is because the celestial angels are within the spiritual angels. The Letter of the Word in the first heaven contains hidden within it, the celestial-rational truths, the spiritual-rational truths, and the natural-spiritual truths. And similarly, the Letter of the Word on earth contains within it, the celestial-rational truths, the spiritual-rational truths, and the natural-spiritual truths. It is clear from this structural view of the Word, that the Writings contain the Divine Truth laid down in layers or degrees of meaning.

The Writings not only explain these structural relations but teaches the orderly and effective method by which Divine Truth is to be understood in a progressively more interior sense. Divine Truth descends from the Lord, and in its descent it is enfolded or covered more and more with each successive degree of descent or externalization. Divine Truth is therefore most enfolded, most covered, in its ultimates, which is the Letter of the Word in each heaven and on earth. The method taught by the Writings in understanding Divine Truth is an orderly unfolding process by means of fixed or given correspondences. These are not man made correspondences. They are not poetic insights into figures of speech. Nor are they scientific discoveries from empirical and rational realizations. It is not possible to unfold the layers of the Writings by means of individual insight or group effort. The only way possible is that provided by the Writings, which specifies in exact terms or concepts, what correspondences are.

Enlightenment Is The Perception Of Spiritual Referents In One’s Experience

The unfolding of the layers of meaning of the Writings must follow the orderly method prescribed in the plain language and literal sense of the Writings. It is the Writings that demand an orderly procedure, as prescribed. This is not an individual decision. Every regenerating individual must do this unfolding for oneself. The Writings provide that we progress in regeneration in a conscious and prescribed manner. There are natural temptations, spiritual temptations, and celestial temptations. We fight in these temptations from Divine Truth, for only this has the power to contain the hells. We fight by applying to our life the Divine Truth that we have understood from the Writings. As we overcome in temptations by applying the truth, we acquire spiritual referents for the truths of the literal sense.

“Spiritual referents” are the events in our mind to which the truths refer.

For instance, consider the Divine Truth expressed in this sentence of the Letter:

It is clear, then, that in the spiritual idea good is the neighbor that is to be loved, or the man according to his good. (Charity 71)

In our unregenerate state, which is the time prior to our reformation in adult life, we read and memorize this sentence. We can recite, paraphrase it, translate it, compare it to other passages. Our level of understanding of this Divine Truth is natural, which means that the referents to which the statement refer, are natural events in the natural mind. We can understand at this level that we are a given a Divine Commandment to obey, namely, to love the good in the neighbor. This level of understanding is natural because the statement refers to a natural event. If pressed for further explanation, we can say that good people should be loved not evil people. Note that this level of thinking equates “good” with “good people.” The referent of “good” is not spiritual, but natural (“good people”). In this mode of reading the Writings, all our referents are natural. Our ideas of heaven, the Grand Human, the Spiritual Sun, the Lord’s omnipresence, proprium, regeneration—are all natural ideas. We think of the spiritual in similar terms as we think of the natural. We understand the spiritual topics of the Heavenly Doctrine in a natural way since all its referents are natural.

But this changes as we undergo reformation and begin our regeneration. Victory in spiritual temptations by means of doctrine applied to life, is the necessary experience for acquiring spiritual referents. As we fight during the temptation we defend ourselves by means of the Divine Truth we have gathered from the Writings. By heeding these truths and obeying them as commandments, we overcome in the temptation. Now for the first time we see a new thing in ourselves. It is the spiritual referent for what we experienced in the struggle. We can see or perceive what activity in our mind, or spirit, is described by the literal expression of the Writings. This is the spiritual referent. It is a new perception and is called “enlightenment” because it raises the level of our thinking to a more interior degree, and what is more interior is called enlightened relative to what is more exterior, which is called obscure or cloudy.

Now as we read again the original text, we have a spiritual referent for it:

It is clear, then, that in the spiritual idea good is the neighbor that is to be loved, or the man according to his good. (Charity 71)

For instance, we may have friends whom we love because they favor us and like us, and we may have enemies whom we fear because they desire to injure us. A situation may come up where we encounter some of our enemies in a life threatening situation, as for instance a car accident. We have a cell phone and can call for assistance, but hesitate, feeling conflictual, perhaps even seeing it as an opportunity for retaliation or revenge. But from the light of the Writings we can see that we ought not to consider ourselves only in any situation. Our enemies also have their human rights and fairness and compassion dictate that we provide the assistance we can. We feel relieved as we have overcome a spiritual temptation. Now we have a totally new referent for the Commandment that “good is the neighbor that is to be loved.” We can now see that despite fearing and resenting our enemy, we nevertheless owe him compassion with respect to saving his life or limb. Our enemy’s life and limb is the good in him that we can see, as he lies there unconscious on the highway. This good in him is what we are commanded to love, and therefore, to provide him with assistance. We can see and understand this new principle because we have an actual referent for it in our experience.

The above example illustrates how regeneration is tied to enlightenment. As we progress in our regeneration, the Lord gives us more interior temptations by which we acquire more interior referents or meanings. Overcoming more interior temptations require enlightenment into more interior truths. The Lord elevates our level of thinking to the next more interior degree as regeneration progresses further by means of the more elevated enlightenment. This is the orderly procedure for every regenerating individual. The Lord provides no other method for salvation.

Spiritual referents are discussed in the Writings as “internal perception”:

Factual truth is one thing, rational truth another, and intellectual truth yet another. They follow on consecutively. Factual truth is a matter of knowledge; rational truth is factual truth confirmed by reason; while intellectual truth is joined to an internal perception that the thing is so (AC 1496).

Note that the rational truth which we obtain from the Letter of the Writings, looks to the external natural world and the self, since it is by the struggles of our own intelligence and effort by which we gain rational truth from the literal of the Writings. But intellectual truth looks to the spiritual world and is not from self but from the Lord. What the Word calls “rational truth” here, refers to our external rational understanding, while interior rational understanding is called “intellectual truth.” Anatomically these are necessarily distinguished, and we know that rational truth operates in the natural-rational mind while intellectual truth operates in the interior-natural mind, and in the spiritual mind. We are not conscious of the operation in the spiritual mind, but we are conscious of the operation in the interior-natural mind. This is the conscious operation referred to in the passages as “internal perception.”

Prior to possession of spiritual referents, it is part of the development of our natural mind to oppose the idea of an internal spiritual sense of which we know nothing as yet. The Lord Himself in His Childhood felt this resistance when He was instructed from Jehovah from within that He must give up the scientifics of the Letter that He had gathered from the Old Testament Word. It pleased the Lord as a very young Child to be imbued with the “science of cognitions” He had gathered from the Letter of the Hebrew Word. Then, He was instructed that these external cognitions of the Letter are to be destroyed for the sake of receiving the celestial truths from within. It is said that the Lord grieved on account of it:

Verse 18. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she is thy wife? "And Pharaoh called Abram," signifies that the Lord bethought Himself; "and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me?" signifies that it grieved Him; "Why didst thou not tell me that she is thy wife?" signifies seeing that He knew that He ought not to have any other truth than that which would be conjoined with what is celestial. (AC 1490)

From all this it is evident that when the Lord as a child learned memory knowledges, He first of all knew no otherwise than that those knowledges were solely for the sake of the intellectual man, that is, in order that He might get to know truths from them; but it was afterwards disclosed that they had existed in order that He might attain to celestial things; and this took place to prevent celestial things from suffering violence, and in order that they might be saved.

When man is being instructed, there is a progression from memory-knowledges to rational truths; further, to intellectual truths; and finally, to celestial truths, which are here signified by the "wife." If the progression is made from memory knowledges and rational truths to celestial truths without intellectual truths as media, the celestial suffers violence, because there can be no connection of rational truths-which are obtained by means of memory-knowledges-with celestial truths, except by means of intellectual truths, which are the media. (AC 1495)

Here, “rational truths-which are obtained by means of memory-knowledges” refers to appearances of truths that we obtain in our external natural mind by means of “memory-knowledges,” which refers to our comprehension of the literal sense of the Writings. But “intellectual truths which are the media,” refers to appearances of truths in the interior natural mind which the Lord creates for every individual within the external natural mind.

The expression “when man is being instructed” refers to the process of our regeneration since that’s when we are being instructed by the Lord from within, just as the Lord as a Child was instructed from His inmost Divine called Jehovah. When we are regenerating we are being instructed both from without and from within. From without, by the Letter of the Writings, understood as natural-rational correspondences or appearances of truth. From within, by the Lord, through spiritual-rational correspondences or appearances of truth. These two sources of instruction must go on simultaneously during regeneration. No one is regenerated by the Letter alone, but by the spiritual which is within the literal. If one is not conscious of the spiritual, one remains in the Letter. Therefore the spiritual must be instructed, not directly for this is not possible, but indirectly, through “mediation” of higher-order appearances of truths or correspondences, called here, “intellectual truths.” Intellectual truths are spiritual-rational while “rational truths” are natural-rational. Intellectual truths are taught by the substitution technique since they cannot be taught directly. This will be illustrated in what follows.

The Number continues with a specific explanation of the process of inner instruction or internal perception, which is enlightenment:

[2] That it may be known how these things stand, something shall be said respecting order. The order is for the celestial to inflow into the spiritual and adapt it to itself; for the spiritual thus to inflow into the rational and adapt it to itself; and for the rational thus to inflow into the memory-knowledge and adapt it to itself. But when a man is being instructed in his earliest childhood, the order is indeed the same, but it appears otherwise, namely, that he advances from memory-knowledges to rational things, from these to spiritual things, and so at last to celestial things.

The reason it so appears is that a way must thus be opened to celestial things, which are the inmost. All instruction is simply an opening of the way; and as the way is opened, or what is the same, as the vessels are opened, there thus flow in, as before said, in their order, rational things that are from celestial spiritual things; into these flow the celestial spiritual things; and into these, celestial things. These celestial and spiritual things are continually presenting themselves, and are also preparing and forming for themselves the vessels which are being opened; which may also be seen from the fact that in themselves the memory-knowledge and rational are dead, and that it is from the inflowing interior life that they seem to be alive.

This can become manifest to anyone from the thought, and the faculty of judgment. (AC 1495)

Our level of thinking and understanding of Divine Truth is here described as a lawful progression across pre-determined steps of enlightenment. The first in our experiential order is the external Letter of the Writings and our mental struggle to comprehend the literal meaning of each sentence and how they hang together. This is what the Lord did in Childhood with the Hebrew Word. This is what we do today with the Latin Word. This is what is called the “science of cognitions” or “memory-knowledges from the Word.” Despite the lofty subject matter and topics—God, sin, love, truth, commandments, worship—the understanding of them is natural, not yet spiritual. The Lord as a Child was instructed from within so that He came to the realization, obscure at first, that

All instruction is simply an opening of the way; and as the way is opened, or what is the same, as the vessels are opened, there thus flow in, as before said, in their order, rational things that are from celestial spiritual things; into these flow the celestial spiritual things; and into these, celestial things (AC 1495)

Truth in the memory [verum scientificum] is one thing; rational truth is another; and intellectual truth is another; they succeed one another. Truth in the memory is a matter of memory-knowledge; rational truth is this truth confirmed by reason; intellectual truth is conjoined with an internal perception that it is so. This intellectual truth existed with the Lord in His childhood, and with Him opened the way to celestial things. (AC 1496)

As we progress in our regeneration, we are instructed by the Lord from within, which means that we are enlightened, which means that we can perceive in ourselves the spiritual referents that are conveyed by the literal expression in the Letter of the Writings. The Letter of the Writings is to be applied to oneself, thus to one’s regeneration, for this is the method the Lord has provided for our salvation. The literal of the Writings is general and applies uniquely to every person. This unique particular application must be performed mentally by the individual reading the Letter. As soon as the reader makes this application, he is enlightened by the Lord. It is automatic. The Lord maintains this built in organic operation for the sake of regeneration.

The application of the literal to oneself is a spiritual literacy skill that needs to be taught by teachers or self-taught by research and study of the Letter. Teaching the methods for extracting the internal sense of the Writings is merely an external preparation for facilitating an internal event. The spiritual sense is the internal event, not the external teaching and reading, even though the external preparation is necessary for the internal event to occur. The substitution technique of applying the Letter to the Letter is an external preparation that facilitates the perception of the internal sense at the moment that the Letter is applied to oneself. The internal sense of the Writings is nothing else than its particular meaning as applied by the individual to self. This is what makes regeneration possible, namely, the applying of the Letter to oneself, that is, to one’s daily willing and thinking, hour by hour.

Everything we do, think, and feel, minute by minute, is to be isolated, identified, and evaluated in the light of this or that literal sentence of the Writings. Every time in the course of a day that this particular application is performed, we are enlightened, which means, that we perceive how the Letter applies to self. This is the internal meaning of the Writings. Of course, there are discrete layers of internal meaning and we are here dealing with the first inward layer, closest to the surface of the literal meaning. This is why, when we first look at natural-rational correspondences of the Letter and then at the spiritual-natural correspondences of the internal, they seem similar! We need to be careful not to make a hasty judgment and decide that the literal and the spiritual are the same because they appear similar upon first examination. This things will be made clear with the illustrations that follow.

Enlightenment is therefore an orderly process and a progressive deepening of one’s understanding of the Letter in its internal structure. Like the Lord as a Child, we progress from external truths about spiritual things to more interior truths about spiritual things. Our interiors are opened by degree, which means that our understanding progresses from external rational to interior natural, to rational-spiritual, then to celestial. This progression is by means of the degrees or layers in which the Letter of the Writings has been enfolded as it descends from celestial to spiritual to rational to natural degrees of our understanding.

Moreover these things also involve more arcana than man can ever believe; but those which can be told are so few as to be almost nothing. Besides the most profound arcana concerning the Lord, they also involve arcana concerning the instruction and regeneration of man, that he may become celestial; as also concerning his instruction and regeneration, that he may become spiritual; and not only concerning the instruction of the individual man, but also concerning that of the church in general. And, further, they involve arcana concerning the instruction of little children in heaven; in a word, concerning the instruction of all who become images and likenesses of the Lord. These things do not at all appear in the sense of the letter, for the reason that the historical narrative veils them over and obscures them; but they appear in the internal sense. (AC 1502)

The “historical narrative” that “obscures” the spiritual meaning refers to the literal sentences of the Writings. There are several modalities of text in the Letter of the Writings—

q historical narratives such as the Memorable Relations and the history of Churches on earth

q empirical descriptions such as resuscitation, or the operations of the heart and lungs

q scientific explanations of how the Lord maintains the universe in order

q dictionary descriptions of natural-spiritual correspondences

q literary analysis of sentences and their rational content

q descriptions of experiments involving the exploration of spirits by angels

q and others.

Each of these modalities of text has its own way of “obscuring” the internal meaning. When we read the Memorable Relations, for instance, there is a compelling visual and dramatic texture of detail that absorbs our thought and imagination to the extent that we have no idea of the internal current of meaning that flows right along with the surface narrative. But it is clearly possible to isolate words and phrases in the narrative, and to look up the correspondences given somewhere else in the Letter. An example is given below regarding TCR 71 (see Section xx).

In order to allow ourselves to progress to an internal perception of the Letter of the Writings we need to acknowledge and understand our reluctance and opposition to this idea. We are in excellent company regarding this fear or hesitation, for the Lord Himself had it. It is discussed in the Writings as a grieving process the Lord went through when He was instructed from within that the rational cognitions He had gathered from the Letter of the Hebrew Word, were to be shattered and destroyed for the sake of opening up the internal sense to the Word.

The grieving process during which we sense an opposition to the idea of an inner sense, ends as soon as the mind is opened to the next interior degree. Our opposition or resistance ends as we perceive new delights in the idea that the Writings have an internal sense that we are commanded to extract in a prescribed orderly manner according to correspondences and confirmations. We no longer see a loss or a threat, but a gain, and a tremendous one. We can look back to our earlier phase and wonder what is it that we so feared and distrusted in the idea.

About the Lord’s grief it is said:

grief from this, that the memory-knowledges which He had learned with pleasure and delight should be thus destroyed. The case herein is like that of little children who when they love something their parents see to be hurtful to them, and it is taken away from them, are thereby grieved. (AC 1492)

As regards memory-knowledges leaving the Lord, the case is this. When celestial things are being conjoined with intellectual truths, and these are becoming celestial, then all things that are empty are dissipated of themselves; this is in the nature of the celestial. (AC 1499)

Empty memory-knowledges leave celestial things, as vain things are wont to leave wisdom; they are as crusts and scales that separate themselves of their own accord. (AC 1500)

When we end our childhood phase of understanding the Writings, we begin to see enlightenment as an orderly process of spiritual development that everyone must go through. We now turn to the Letter with even more love and passion, scrutating its literal expressions in far greater detail than before, analyzing them in the light of other passages, then seeing them come alive in our regeneration struggles day by day as we particularize the Divine Truth in the Word and apply it to self. Instead of a “dead letter” we now consume a living Word, for it is the inner meaning that gives life to the outer meaning, as seen in the passages quoted above.

The method of unfolding the inner sense of the Writings has been described in detail by the insights and studies of the Dutch Group as recorded in their periodical of De Hemelsche Leer (see End Notes). These studies are fully objective, demonstrable, and consistent with the procedures that the Writings command us to follow when extracting or unfolding the spiritual sense of the Letter. The studies of the Dutch Group are a tremendous resource for the New Church and I expect that they will be fully claimed by the men of the General Church, once they are appreciated for what they are. It is a fair statement to say that the important research and insights of the Dutch Group have not been evaluated or examined by the majority of General Church ministers and educators, generation after generation. The demonstrations and arguments presented in this paper make it clear that the work of the Dutch Group is based on sound Scriptural proofs based on the Letter of the Writings.

Nothing can be more important to the Church than its Doctrine, which is its lifeline and purpose. Two fundamental principles of the Divine Doctrine have been granted to humankind through the men of the General Church. The first principle is that the Writings are the third and final portion of the Threefold Word. The second principle of the Divine Doctrine given through the General Church is that the Writings are written in natural-rational correspondences and that every regenerating person must be enlightened by the Lord in order to see in the Letter interior truths by which to fight and overcome in our temptations. These are the two fundamental propositions introduced at the beginning of this paper.

These two principles of Divine Doctrine are the purpose and lifeline of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. By these two principles, the General Church is able to instruct the people in the required and commanded method we are to use to extract more interior truths from the Letter of the Writings. These are the two Divine doctrinal principles by which spiritual literacy skills can be acquired by anyone anywhere in the world.

Without these two principles of the Doctrine of the Church, how are the people going to be regenerated? The people will starve when fed on the dead flesh of the Letter. Living nutrition—the Mana of the Second Coming—must be provided, and only the internal sense is living. This sense cannot be learned by reading its description that is provided in a book or in a lecture. It can only be seen by enlightenment, and this elevation of the understanding cannot be laid down naked in a natural language. Natural language can only convey natural ideas about spiritual topics. This is why the Writings teach in specific detail how the internal sense must be extracted or unfolded from the Letter. There is no other method for receiving this Mana of salvation than spiritual perception from enlightenment by the Lord while we are engaged in applying the Letter to one’s willing and thinking.

It is a Divine Commandment that every New Church individual perform this extraction or unfolding process, for without this there is no regeneration, consequently, no salvation.

Therefore these spiritual literacy skills must be taught by instruction and demonstration.

The internal sense that is necessary for regeneration cannot be obtained in any other way but by the orderly procedures commanded in the Writings for unfolding the Letter. The internal sense cannot be obtained by explication, but only by performing the unfolding oneself. Explication by others who are enlightened can be most useful, but they are not sufficient. Every individual must learn spiritual literacy skills that empower them to be enlightened by the Lord. The Lord Himself teaches these spiritual literacy skills in the plain teaching of the Letter of the Writings.

The internal sense makes the Writings to be Divine (AC 1540)

Out Of Egypt Have I Called My Son

The Lord’s instruction as a Child by means of the Letter of the Hebrew Word is discussed in Arcana Coelestia. Egypt represents the knowledge gathered by the Lord from the literal sense of the Word and His rational understanding of its spiritual topics.

From all this it is now evident that Abram's sojourn in Egypt represents and signifies nothing else than the Lord, and in fact His instruction in childhood. This is also confirmed by what is said in Hosea:

Out of Egypt have I called My son (Hos. 11:1; Matt. 2:15) ...

Thus by the "son out of Egypt" (in Hosea 11:1) in the internal sense is signified the Lord. This is further confirmed by the fact that in the Word "Egypt" signifies memory-knowledge ... Besides the most profound arcana concerning the Lord, they also involve arcana concerning the instruction and regeneration of man... And, further, they involve arcana concerning the instruction of little children in heaven; in a word, concerning the instruction of all who become images and likenesses of the Lord. (AC 1502)

But being historical, the mind of the reader cannot but be held in them; especially at this day, when most persons, and indeed nearly all, do not believe that there is an internal sense, and still less that it exists in every word.

That the internal sense is the Word itself, is evident from many things that have been revealed, as, "Out of Egypt have I called My son" (Matt. 2:15); besides many others.

(...)

The men of the Most Ancient and of the Ancient Church, who, had they lived at this day, and had read the Writings, would not have attended at all to the sense of the letter, which they would look upon as nothing, but to the internal sense. (AC 1540)

The following passages indicate that the Writings are “composed of appearances and correspondences.” It is said, further, that the Lord conjoins Himself to us by means of correspondences.

The Writings is written throughout wholly by correspondences (DP 256)

The literal sense of the Writings is for the simple, for those who are being initiated into the interior truths of faith, and for those who do not apprehend interior things; for this sense is according to the appearance before the sensuous man, thus is according to his apprehension. (AC 9025)

The literal sense of the Writings was composed out of what are called appearances and correspondences (TCR 650). The Lord conjoins Himself to uses by means of correspondences, and thus by means of appearances in accordance with the confirmations of these by man (DP 220). Correspondences are in great part appearances of truth enclosed within which, nevertheless, genuine truths lie concealed (DP 256).

We can know that the power of the Letter of the Writings is Divine since the Writings are the Word of the Second Coming, and the Letter of the Word contains nothing but the Divine. This power lies in its being written in natural-rational correspondences or appearances of truth within which is contained spiritual-rational correspondences or appearances of genuine truth. These spiritual correspondences come forth from Divine Truth as it descends and externalizes in the human mind. The literal sense of each expression in the Writings is a natural-rational correspondence. Within this, as in a cognitive vessel or containant, lies infinite things in infinite series, since this is the character of the Word (AC 2619, 6620).

The living power of the Letter of the Writings comes from what lies within its Letter.

The Writings in the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, is in its holiness and its fullness. (...) In this sense the Writings is also in its power. (...) The power of Divine truth is directed especially against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. The fight against these must be waged by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Writings. Moreover it is by means of the truths in a man that the Lord has the power to save him; for man is reformed and regenerated and is at the same time taken out of hell and introduced into heaven, by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Writings. This power the Lord took upon Himself, even as to His Divine Human, after He had fulfilled all things of the Writings down to its ultimates. (SS 49)

The above passage indicates that every New Church individual must be reformed and regenerated by means of the Letter of the Writings, within which is Divine truth. It is not possible for anyone to be reformed and regenerated except by means of the Letter of the Writings, when we use it to fight our hereditary evils and acquired falsities.

Again:

Divine truth in the natural sense of the Writings, which is the sense of its letter is in its power (...). From this cause the literal sense is the basis, container, and support of its spiritual sense (...). All power is in the ultimates which are called things natural consequently in the natural sense of the letter of the Writings, and in the natural light of man (...) (AR 148).

From this passage one can see that the ultimates of the Writings are in the Letter, which is “in the natural light of man. When our thinking is immersed in the literal sense of the Writings we are in “natural light,” that is, in natural-rational correspondences or appearances of truth. When we think and reason about the spiritual topics in the Writings, such as the Lord, heaven, and regeneration, we think of them in natural appearances of Divine truth. These are called natural-rational correspondences. When our thinking is immersed in the Letter of the Writings, we are in natural light. We are thinking naturally about spiritual topics. We are not yet thinking spiritually about spiritual topics. In order to think spiritually about spiritual topics we must be enlightened by the Lord. When the Lord enlightens our understanding, our thinking is elevated to a discrete degree above the natural-rational level. At this interior level, our thinking is immersed in spiritual-rational correspondences. Spiritual-rational correspondences are the same as the internal sense of the Letter of the Writings.

Again:

Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Writings, are not the very truths of heaven, but are appearances of them; and appearances of truth encompass, enclose, and contain the truths of heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and order and to act together (AE 1088)

The appearances of truths in the Letter of the Writings are conveyed by means of natural-rational correspondences. Within these, are more interior appearances of truths conveyed by spiritual-rational correspondences. In other words, the internal sense of natural-rational correspondences are conveyed by means of spiritual-rational correspondences. The latter are perceived by enlightenment from the Lord when the former are applied to life, that is, one’s daily willing and thinking.

The Writings warn us not to confuse the spiritual-rational correspondences of the internal sense with natural-rational correspondences of the Letter:

But he is greatly mistaken who separates appearances of truth from genuine truths and calls these appearances holy by themselves and from themselves, and not the sense of the letter holy by genuine truths and from them and together with them. He separates these who sees only the sense of the letter and does not explore its meaning, as those do who do not read the Writings from doctrine. The "cherubim" mean in the Writings a guard and protection that the holy things of heaven be not violated, and that the Lord be approached only through love; consequently these signify the sense of the letter of the Writings, because that is what guards and protects. It guards and protects in this manner that man can think and speak according to the appearances of truth so long as he is well-disposed, simple, and as it were an infant; but he must take heed not to so confirm appearances as to destroy the genuine truths in the heavens. (AE 1088)

The warning here is for us to avoid separating “appearances of truth from genuine truths.” We must not separate in our mind the built in connection that exists between the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter and the spiritual-rational correspondences of the internal sense. The natural-rational correspondences are called “appearances of truth” while the spiritual-rational correspondences are called “genuine truths.” All truths are conveyed by means of correspondences. These are most interior with the highest angels, and less interior with the lower angels.

We can say “natural-rational correspondences” of the Letter of the Writings, or “natural-rational appearances of truths,” or “natural-rational truths” – the three expressions are equivalent. Similarly, we can say “spiritual-rational correspondences” of the internal sense of the Writings, or “spiritual-rational appearances of truths” or “spiritual-rational truths.” It should be recalled that anatomically, natural-rational correspondences are operative in the external natural mind, while spiritual-rational correspondences are operative in the interior-natural mind, which is also called the spiritual-natural mind or First Heaven. In other words, the literal meanings of the Writings are operative in the external natural mind while the internal meanings are operative in the interior natural mind.

The Lord forms and opens the interior-natural mind to the extent that an individual applies one’s understanding of the Letter to one’s daily willing and thinking. This opening of the interior-natural mind results in the conscious awareness of spiritual-rational correspondences. This is a new perception and is called enlightenment. Enlightenment is gradual over the course of regeneration and is proportional to the extent we keep re-applying the new truths we perceive, to our daily willing and thinking. This creates a spiral of ascension to heaven by means of regeneration. One perceives more and more of the interior series of the Writings as one progresses with regeneration, that is, as one applies each new perception to one’s willing and thinking all day long.

The idea that the Writings contain a spiritual meaning beneath the letter can only come to us when we acknowledge it as the Word, just like the Word of the Old and New Testaments. Once we acknowledge this fully, without hedging, we begin to substitute in our mind “the Writings” wherever we see “the Word” as we read the Writings. The minute we start doing this, we begin to see some of the spiritual meaning within the letter. This is the result of enlightenment from the Lord. The Lord works with our motive for doing this substitution. To the extent that we do the substitution because we love the idea that the Writings are the primary Word for the New Church mind, to that extent the Lord intensifies the enlightenment and allows us to see more interior truths. The more interior the truths we see within the Letter, the more there is enlightenment, and the closer we are to the celestial angels who live in the spiritual truths of the Writings. But, as explained frequently, this enlightenment is proportional to the extent to which we apply our understanding of Doctrine to our life.

I have discussed this extraction process as applying the Letter to the Letter. This is what protects the Church from false doctrines, not the intelligence of the priests, or their vigilance against heretical views spreading in the Church. For the priests spread false doctrines and dogmas just as anyone in the Church. When we are immersed in the natural-rational correspondences, our interpretation of the literal meaning takes away by a subconscious lulling into sleep, like a ship is carried by an unfavorable current to rocky waters where it will surely crash and break open. What protects us from false doctrines in our mind is the ability to view the natural-rational correspondences from the perspective or light of spiritual-natural correspondences. It is the interior-natural mind looking down on the natural-rational mind. This is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is called seeing the spiritual sense within the literal meaning. This refers to seeing from the interior-natural mind as it looks down on the natural-rational mind.

This enlightenment gives us a perception of Spiritual Doctrine, which is Divine Doctrine, spiritual and celestial in origin, with nothing at all from the world or self. This perception is the sole and sufficient means the Lord gives us to defeat false doctrines and idolatries. Note that the Beekman Doctrine failed and was rejected utterly because it could not be confirmed by the Letter of the Writings. This is what protects the Church fully so that it is in no danger as long as we stay true to the Commandment from the Letter of the Writings, that all Doctrine must be confirmed by the Letter of the Word.

In contradistinction to the Beekman Doctrine, the Academy Position and the Dutch Thesis were both fully and amply confirmed by the Letter of the Writings.

The spiritual sense of the Writings cannot be perverted because it cannot exist in the speech of teachers or the writings of sermons and articles. What is written down, or what is spoken verbally, about the Spiritual Doctrine, is automatically a natural correspondence of it. This natural correspondence is at the same level of thinking as the Letter of the Writings. Consequently, we can apply the Letter to any proposed doctrinal notion of spiritual things, and test it directly, level to level, correspondence level to correspondence level. False doctrines are also stated in natural-rational correspondences just as genuine Doctrine is. But false doctrines pervert and invert the correspondences while genuine Doctrine is Divine in our understanding.

Conjunction With The Lord By Means Of The Internal Sense

Consider for example the statement about “Nunc Licet” in the literal: “Now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith.” (TCR 508) For decades we can read and hear this sentence, and teach it to others, and not see its spiritual meaning, which is, that the New Church mind is required to enter into the spiritual sense of the Writings. The spiritual sense of this sentence is the Doctrine of the Church (xx). Even after this meaning is described, as I am doing here, it cannot be recognized as true except from enlightenment in regeneration. Instead of recognizing that this is indeed its spiritual sense, we doubt it, we see it as just conjecture, as an unproven hypothesis, possibly wrong, and so on. This doubting shows the truth that the spiritual Doctrine can only be understood when enlightened by the Lord to the extent of our regeneration efforts (xx).

The conjunction of the Lord with man is through the Writings, by means of the internal sense (AC n. 10375). (HH 305)

For the New Church mind this means that conjunction of the Lord with us is through the Writings, by means of the internal sense. Here you see why it is required that we concern ourselves with the spiritual sense of the Writings, not merely with the literal. Without the spiritual sense of the Writings the New Church mind cannot be formed and be conjoined to the Lord, and without conjunction we cannot be saved.

There is conjunction by means of all things and each particular thing of the Writings, and in consequence the Writings is wonderful above all other writing (AC n. 10632-10634). (HH 305)

There is no comparison possible between the Writings and any other written work. Every word, idea, or “particular thing” in the Writings allows conjunction with the Lord through its spiritual sense, as shown above.

Since the Writings was written the Lord speaks with men by means of it (n.

10290). (HH 305)

The Writings are the only source the Lord has created for Divine Truth in the new dispensation of the Second Coming.

The church exists specifically where the Writings is, and where the Lord is thereby known, and thus where Divine truths are revealed (AC n. 3857, 10761). Still they who are born where the Writings is, and where the Lord is thereby known, are not of the church, but they who are regenerated by the Lord by the truths of the Writings, that is, they who live the life of charity (NJHD 246)

This means that the New Church mind is formed by Divine truths that are revealed in the Writings and by which we are conjoined to the Lord. But the New Church mind is not formed by mere membership in a New Church religious organization. Rather, it is formed by the Lord through regeneration to the extent that we guide our willing and thinking by means of Doctrine from the Writings. This Doctrine must be a spiritual Doctrine for only that is Divine Truth. The spiritual Doctrine is not the literal of the Writings but its spiritual sense.

They who are of the church, or in whom the church is, are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, that is, they love truth because it is truth; and they examine from the Word whether the doctrinals of the church in which they were born are true (AC n. 5432, 6047). Otherwise the truth possessed by everyone would be derived from another, and from his native soil … (NJHD 246)

“They who are of the church, or in whom the church is” refers to the New Church mind. It is plainly Commanded here that the New Church mind is required to examine from the Writings “whether the doctrinals of the church in which they were born are true.” The doctrinals in which we are born is the literal of the Writings or the Heavenly Doctrine. The New Church mind cannot be formed without this rational examination of the literal of the Writings. This is what reformation consists of. When we become an adult thinker reasoning from what we have made our own, we are ready to undergo reformation. This involves examining the literal of the Writings and understanding it in a scholarly way by which we are real students of the Lord. This is our First Education, as discussed above.

We are told here that until we become experts in the literal of the Writings, within our own sphere of thinking and reasoning, we are merely deriving the truth possessed by someone else, perhaps a teacher, preacher, or commentator. This is not the “native soil” for Divine truth but only hearsay and is not usable for our regeneration and salvation.

The internal or spiritual sense of the Writings contains innumerable arcana. The Writings in its internal sense contains innumerable things, which exceed human comprehension (AC n. 3085, 3086). It also contains inexplicable things (AC n. 1965). Which are represented only to angels, and understood by them ... Innumerable things are contained in every particular of the Writings (AC n. 6617, 6620, 8920); and in every expression … (NJHD 260)

This means that the spiritual sense of the Writings contains innumerable arcana in every word and expression. “Arcana” are spiritual truths from heaven, that is, in our spiritual mind. The Writings are the Word for the Crown of Churches. There will not be another new Church in the future, another new Word given. This is it. The creation of the human race has now been completed in the Second Coming. It makes sense therefore that the numberless generations still to come in the future should have an endless source of spiritual truths, and that is the Writings. The literal of the Writings is not endless but has a fixed number of pages and sentences. But the spiritual sense contained in this fixed literal, contains endless truths for the education and enlightenment of the future generations.

Not a single word, nor even a single iota can be omitted in the sense of the letter of the Word, without an interruption in the internal sense, and therefore, by the Divine Providence of the Lord, the Word has been preserved so entire as to every word and every point (AC n. 7933). (NJHD 260)

This means that not a single word can be omitted in the Writings without interrupting or destroying the continuity of the internal sense. Note this revelation: “By the Divine Providence of the Lord, the Word has been preserved so entire as to every word and every point.” This means that the Writings can be translated in many natural languages and that the Lord insures that the original sense of the letter is “preserved” in these translations. In other words, a Russian or Japanese translation of Arcana Coelestia will contain the same internal sense as the English translation or the original Latin. Angels perceive the spiritual sense of the Writings when people read it in any natural language (xx). I think we need to distinguish between a good and faithful translation from bad or fanciful ones.

There are those who think that the Writings are Divinely inspired but not necessarily in every word. This notion is a rational impossibility. We know from the Writings that not a single detail or event in the universe can occur except from the Lord’s Divine Providence (xx) and that every single thought we have or word we pronounce is made possible by the Lord through His Laws of Permissions (xx). So if the Lord manages everyone’s thinking, speaking, and writing, it is perfectly rational to say that the Lord managed the writing down of every single word Swedenborg wrote. And of course this universal principle must be applied also to the printing and processing of the Books of the Writings, thus, all the errors, missing numbers, repetitions, illustrations, and so on. Not a single detail of the Writings exists except from the Lord and by the Lord’s Divine supervision and management.

Therefore it’s not rational to doubt that every word and letter of the Writings is Divine Truth and contains infinite arcana in its inner spiritual sense. Swedenborg’s intelligence and genius notwithstanding, it is obvious that he could not know even a tiny portion of all that was contained in the words and sentences he wrote out, as-of self, but from the Lord.

Those who form a New Church mind for themselves out of the Writings are called “those whose interiors have been opened even into the light of heaven” (HH 267). This refers to the opening of our spiritual mind by means of the spiritual sense of the Writings and the Heavenly Doctrine. When our spiritual mind is opened, we become a new man with new abilities, as specified here:

So far as man is raised up from things external towards interior things he comes into light, that is, into intelligence … There is an actual elevation … Elevation from external to interior things is like elevation out of a mist into light … The exterior things with man are farther removed from the Divine and therefore are relatively obscure … Likewise relatively confused … Interior things are more perfect because they are nearer to the Divine … In what is internal there are thousands and thousands of things that appear in what is exterior as one general thing … Consequently, as thought and perception are more interior they are clearer … (HH 267)

This says that when we undergo reformation and form the New Church mind in ourselves, we then first come into “intelligence.” This new spiritual intelligence is a conscious experience that is “an actual elevation” into heavenly light. It is experienced as a more interior understanding that is clearly visible to us. The reason is that interior truths in the spiritual mind are seen in clarity while truths seen in the natural mind are relatively general, obscure, and confused.

There cannot be any conjunction with heaven, unless somewhere on the earth there is a church where the Word is, and by it the Lord is known; for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without the Lord there is no salvation. . (DE VERBO 17)

This means that in the new evolutionary age of the Second Coming, conjunction between heaven and the human race on earth requires that there be a New Church mind somewhere on earth who knows the Divine Human from the Writings. This conjunction is effective even if there are relatively few individuals who are forming the New Church mind in themselves through the Writings.

It is enough that there be somewhere on the earth a church where the Word is. Though it consist of comparatively few, still by means of it, the Lord is present everywhere in the whole world, and by means of it heaven is conjoined to the human race, for conjunction is effected by means of the Word. But without the Word somewhere in the world there would not be conjunction with anyone. The reason of the presence of the Lord and of the conjunction of heaven with the inhabitants of the earth everywhere by means of the Word, is, that the whole heaven is before the Lord as one man, and likewise the church, and it is also actually a man, because the Lord is heaven and also the church. (DE VERBO 17)

The Writings are the means of conjunction with the Divine Human both on earth and in heaven:

The angels themselves declare that all their wisdom comes through the Word; for the light they enjoy depends upon how deep is their understanding of the Word. The light of heaven is Divine wisdom, which is visible to their eyes as light. In the shrine where a copy of the Word is stored, the light is flame-like and brilliant, surpassing in intensity any light in heaven outside it. (TCR 242)

Here it is stated that all the wisdom of the angels comes from the Writings, and their enlightenment is proportional to “how deep is their understanding” of the Heavenly Doctrine. Note that “a copy” of the Writings is “stored” there in a “shrine.” The brilliant light surrounding this shrine was witnessed by Swedenborg (xx).

These facts will allow one to conclude what wisdom there is lurking hidden in the Word we have in the world. For in it lies hidden all the wisdom of the angels, which is beyond description; and a person after death enters into possession of this wisdom, if by means of the Word he is made an angel by the Lord. (TCR 242)

This says that in the Writings we have here on earth, there is hidden “all the wisdom of the angels” and that the New Church mind that is formed through the Writings, “after death enters into possession of this wisdom.” Thus it is by means of the Writings exclusively that the New Church mind can become an angel.

In the next life, ... it is not the truths themselves that are seen but the life they have within them, that is, the celestial things within them (AC 1496).

(2) Where The Writings Say That Enlightenment Is The Perception Of The Inner Sense Of The Writings.

The Doctrine in our mind is first natural from the Letter of the Writings, then spiritual from enlightenment as we apply the literal sentences to our daily willing and thinking.

When the Doctrine is understood literally, consequently naturally, we consider it the same as the Letter of the Writings. In other words the expressions “the Heavenly Doctrine” and “the Letter of the Writings” are taken to be the same. But when Doctrine is understood spiritually, it is as remote from the Letter as the light of the moon is in comparison to the light of the sun (xx). The Heavenly Doctrine understood spiritually is called the Spiritual Doctrine. This is the Doctrine we must form for ourselves for making progress in our regeneration. Spiritual Doctrine understood spiritually has light and power like the noonday sun in the summer in relation to a garden or field. We begin reformation through a natural understanding of Doctrine in its literal sentences, but by the time we complete reformation, and begin regeneration, more and more of Doctrine is now seen spiritually. In other words, our enlightenment grows in proportion to our regeneration.

The Spiritual Doctrine is the Writings understood spiritually.

At first we see the Heavenly Doctrine as something outside of ourselves, something in the Letter. We take up the literal sentences into our memory and into our natural-rational understanding. Note that we do this by dint of intellectual effort and reasoning. Now that a form of the Heavenly Doctrine is in our natural-rational mind, we feel it as our own, to the extent that we also love it, not merely understand it. Once we have this natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine, it stays with us as we go about our daily willing and thinking, and not merely when we read the Writings. It’s as if the Writings are written in our memory and heart, rather than in a book or computer file.

We can now use the Heavenly Doctrine we have appropriated by applying it to guide our daily willing and thinking. This is part of the process of regeneration, namely, taking up a natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine and then applying it to guide our daily willing and thinking. This natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine is nothing else than the understanding of the natural-rational correspondences in which its words and expressions are written.

But the natural understanding of Doctrine does not have the power to regenerate because the natural cannot enter the spiritual, and we must be regenerated by what is spiritual entering the natural (xx).

Hence the Lord gives us enlightenment to the extent that we apply our natural understanding of Doctrine to daily willing and thinking. The spiritual entering the natural consists of applying natural-rational correspondences to our willing and thinking, an act or operation that the Lord uses to enlighten us. This effect is obtained because our willing and thinking constitute the interior level of the particular in creation, while the Doctrine in our mind constitute general principles and relations. The particular is a discrete degree above the general, as will be shown in the diagram that follows.

Only after this enlightenment has occurred, do we have a conscious perception of the Spiritual Doctrine.

In old age, the New Church mind enters into the third degree of the interior-natural mind, which is the level of understanding of Doctrine possessed by the celestial angels of the highest or Third Heaven. This level is discussed in Volume 4 (in preparation).

A Diagram Showing The Formation Of The New Church Mind

The Nine Installation Steps

Starting with level I at the bottom, you can see the duality external man / internal man. This is the first installation step. Notice the two arrows. The arrow on the right pointing downward represents the order of creation. In this case the internal man was created to rule the external man, and gradually does so, as we are regenerated. The reverse arrow on the left pointing upward represents the order of appearances. In the appearances of our biography it seems that the internal man is discovered by the external man. For instance we might read this in the Writings at which time we say to ourselves: “OK, I have an internal man of which I’m unconscious. This internal part of myself is called a heaven in miniature (xx) because that portion of my spirit or mind is actually in heaven with angels” (cf. xx).

From this we live the appearance that the external man discovers the existence of the internal man. When this appearance is taken for reality, the internal man cannot descend into the external man and heaven remains unattainable and distant as long as we remain in that state of mind.

The two arrows must work together to achieve functionality of the Divine operation.

The downward arrow represents the dominion of the internal over the external. Heaven then rules that person, and the individual is then in heaven already. The upward arrow represents the resistance we put up to obeying the Doctrine in our mind. It is our unregenerate state. Understanding this duality moves us into level II of reformation. It is the first step up in our reformation, which begins at some point in adulthood with the knowledge from the Writings that we must undergo reformation by subduing the external man and place him in obedience to the internal man. Acknowledging this process allows us to begin reformation but in order to progress we must take the second installation step.

The first installation step that begins reformation (Volume 1), is our acknowledgement from the Letter of the Writings that the internal man is superior even though invisible to the external man. Until reformation we were in our unregenerate state and we believed the internal/external contrast in a natural way. The contrast in our mind was a nonduality created by the idea of a continuum that stretches between the internal and the external of our mind. We thought of it like we think about the internal wall of the heart and its external wall. They are different along a continuum of muscle-cartilage combinations. Both the external wall and the internal wall of the heart belong to the same specialty in medicine, and the same techniques are used for managing both during surgery and after. This is a nonduality because the internal and external portions of the heart are made of similar fibers and protein molecules. They are at the same discrete level.

But not so for the internal man and the external man—they are at discrete levels relative to each other. The internal man can see the external man, but the external man cannot see the internal man (xx). Their relationship and interaction is by correspondence only since they are in two separate realms of existence. Reformation begins when we acknowledge that the relation is a discrete duality. Then for the first time we can accept the idea that the external man did not discover the internal man, but it is the internal man that revealed himself to the internal man. This new acknowledgment completes the paths of the two arrows and renders the duality functional, allowing the second step up.

Prior to the beginning of reformation sometime in adult life, we have the Letter of the Writings in our understanding and we take the literal meaning to be the spiritual meaning, especially when we had to work hard to finally understand some passage or see a relation between a collection of passages. We equate “hard to understand” with “deeper meaning,” and then we equate “deeper meaning” with “spiritual meaning.” Meanwhile, our thinking is immersed in the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter. We worship the Letter as one worships the Lord’s Body buried in a tomb hewn out of rocks.

But when we acknowledge that the internal man reveals himself to the external man, we can begin to understand this as a scientific or medical process of the growth of the human mind. This new understanding is the second installation step, as the diagram indicates. The third installation step is above understanding into perception. We are in this final phase of reformation we can perceive the particular within the general. This means: when we apply the Letter to our willing and thinking. Our willing and thinking is the particular out of which the general is constructed. Another way to say this is that our reformation is complete when we perceive the duality of the particular within the general. The general refers to the general principles and laws of Doctrine that we have in our mind from the Letter. When our reformation is completed (installation step III), our mind is then operating differently from before. We were not able to perceive how the Letter applied to our willing and thinking. We were not able to see the particular within the Letter, only its general on the exterior. Yet the general is for the sake of the particular, just as the external is for the sake of the interior.

Installation step 4 begins the operation of enlightenment (Volume 2).

This step is the acknowledgement of the duality between the spiritual sense and the natural sense. Until this first step of enlightenment we had believed that the natural sense of the Letter of the Writings is the same as the spiritual sense of the Old and New Testaments. This point of view cannot see a duality between them in discrete degrees, but only as a nonduality contrast, or continuum within the same degree. The first step of enlightenment therefore comes when we acknowledge that the Writings are written in pure correspondences.

The second step of enlightenment is installation step 5. The diagram shows that this involves understanding the duality of spiritual-rational correspondences within natural-rational correspondences. We obtain this understanding when we practice reading the Letter of the Writings with substitutions for parts from another part of the Writings. This technique and its enlightening consequences are described later in the Chapter.

The final step in enlightenment is installation step 6.

The diagram shows that this is the perception (III) of the duality Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter of the Writings. This is the highest step of enlightenment when our perception is elevated to heavenly light and we perceive spiritually like the angels do, though by means of natural correspondences, ever higher and more discretely representative. When we are fully enlightened and can perceive the Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter, we are at last fully prepared for the operation of regeneration.

Note the two arrows again in installation step 6, or the final phase of enlightenment (III). From the order of creation, the Spiritual Doctrine creates a suitable natural vessel for itself called the Word. This creative cause-effect relation is represented by the right arrow pointing downward. But in biographical appearance, the order is reversed. It appears that the Letter comes to us first, and that we study it for many years, believing that our increasing understanding is the spiritual sense that we penetrate. This is represented by the left arrow pointing upward. But as soon as both arrows become functional, the process is completed. In this case, the Spiritual Doctrine is no longer seen as something we infer and figure out, but something we derive or extract from the Letter because it is located within the Letter. It is a mining operation rather than a discovery and invention operation. And there are definite rules and techniques to be applied for the mining operation to be effective. This Chapter describes these methods of orderly an legitimate extraction of the Spiritual Doctrine from the Letter.

Installation step 7 is the first step of regeneration.

As the diagram shows, it is the acknowledgement of a discrete duality between reformation and regeneration. Prior to this first step, we believe that we have already been regenerating since childhood or adolescence. This is a nonduality notion of the unregenerate mind. We knew before that there was a distinction between reformation and regeneration. But we did not understand this relationship spiritually, only naturally. But now, we acknowledge it as a discrete duality, so that we can recognize the task that lies ahead. The task of regeneration has not begun until the tasks of reformation and enlightenment have been completed. Only when we perceive the Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter can we acknowledge the discrete duality between reformation and regeneration. We acknowledge reformation to be the external part of our work, while regeneration is the internal part. The external part has to do with the understanding and the dualities therein, while the internal part has to do with the will and our infernal delights.

The second step of regeneration is installation step 8.

The diagram shows this is the understanding (II) of the duality of heaven within the Church on earth. You can see from the diagram that this understanding depends on the duality between spiritual-rational correspondences and natural-rational correspondences established earlier (panning left to enlightenment, level II). We know from the Writings that heaven is the Grand Human and that nothing can be inducted into that Divine Form but what is genuinely Human, that is, what is from the Lord. There is a purification process that we must undergo if our mind is to be a Church that is tied to heaven, thus a Church in which there is an internal worship. Regeneration is the process of purification by which the Lord brings our awareness to evil delights we cleave to, thus giving us the opportunity to reject them by turning our face toward Him. Thus we can desist from the evil delights, and at last hold them in aversion and detest them. Then the Lord can admit us into the innocence of wisdom in old age (see Volume 4). This is the celestial mind, the Church on earth.

The final step of regeneration is installation step 9.

The diagram shows that this is the perception (III) of the duality conjugial love within marriage. Prior to this final phase of our regeneration we could not perceive a discrete degree between the external of our marriage an its internal, which is conjugial love. Volume 3 discusses the Doctrine of the Wife which is the central method for entering the last phase of one’s regeneration.

After completion of the nine installation steps, the New Church mind is fully regenerated. Then begins a new form of regeneration that does not depend on combat, as before. This is the first time that we have become fully human, as a celestial mind on earth. It is called the innocence of wisdom in old age (volume 4—in preparation).

(3) Where The Writings Say That Enlightenment Is Necessary For Our Regeneration.

Enlightenment is the perception of the spiritual sense within the Letter of the Writings. This interior perception is given when the truths we understand literally are applied to our daily willing and thinking.

Everything that proceeds from the Lord is called spiritual. And since these truths and goods cannot be received by man unless he believes them and does them, it is added, which are of faith and life from the Writings. To live from the Writings is to live from the Lord, for the Lord is in the Writings, yea, He is the Writings. (CORONIS 0) (“the Writings” substituted for “the Word”)

In other words, the truths we take up from the Letter of the Writings are enlightened by the Lord when we make them “of faith and life,” that is, apply the truths to our willing and thinking all day long. When we do this, and to the extent we do this, the Lord enlightens us to perceive the internal sense within the literal. As a result our understanding and level of thinking are elevated and immersed in higher level correspondences, which are more interior appearances of those truths.

When we learn the truths of the Writings, we first have to put them into our external rational mind, which is natural, not spiritual. But once they are there, they can be elevated into spiritual truths when the Lord enlightens us to perceive these spiritual truths. And the Lord en