Scientific discovery of Spiritual Laws given in Rational
Scientific Revelations
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DE
HEMELSCHE LEER A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED
TO THE DOCTRINE OF GENUINE TRUTH ORGAN OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM IN HOLLAND EXTRACTS FORM THE ISSUES JUNE TO DECEMBER 1932 (ENGLISH TRANSLATION)
fourth facicle
LEADING THESES PROPOUNDED IN "DE
HEMELSCHE LEER."
1. The Writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. The
DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to
the three Testaments alike.
2. The Latin Word
without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read the Latin
Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the
Latin Word. are in darkness as to all truth (of. S. S. 50-61).
3. The genuine
Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin, but not out of
rational origin. The Lord is that Doctrine
itself (cf.
A. C. 2496, 2497,
2510, 2516, 2533, 2859; A.
E. 19). 3 DE
HEMELSCHE LEER
EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR. JUNE 193-2 FROM
THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP Extract
from the minutes of the meeting of Saturday, April 11th 1931.
The memorandum, calling this meeting together, reads as
follows: Review
of Mr. Groenveld's Address
The Nineteenth of June 1930 (see Third Fascicle, pp. 38).
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER gave the following elucidation of Mr, Groeneveld's
address: The occasion for this address by Mr. Groeneveld was the celebration of
the Nineteenth of June. The subject therefore is the coming into existence of
the Church, that is. the coming into existence of those real things which,
before the Lord, are the Church. If the essence of the Church is seen in
spiritual light, it does not appear as an external organization in the world,
but as a Man; and it is said of it and of the things which make it, that they
are conceived and born, and that subsequently they pass through the ages of a
man from the innocence of the ignorance of childhood to the innocence of the
wisdom of old age.
In this way it is seen in the spiritual sense that the Doctrine of the
Church is conceived in the Church from the Lord and is born out of the Church.
The New Church of the Lord which will be in the lands, and which is the New jerusalem,
is represented by a Woman travailing in birth; the Doctrine of that Church by
the male Son whom she bore; the travailing in birth signifies the difficult
reception of that Doctrine, on account of the opposition of the proprium of man
(cf. A.R. XII). it is indeed said in the literal sense of the APOCALYPSE REVEALED: "The
Doctrine here meant is THE DOCTRINE
OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, published in London, 17,')8; as also THE
4
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS DOCTRINES
CONCERNING THE LORD. CONCERNING THE SACKED SCRIPTURE, AND CONCERNING LIFE
ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE DECALOGUE. Amsterdam" (n. 543). In the
literal sense thus of the APOCALYPSE REVEALED the difficult birth of the Latin
Testament itself in Swedenborg's
time is here
spoken of,
but that
this passage in the spiritual sense applies to the birth of the Doctrine
in the Church, is evident to any one who understands the difference between the
Word and the Doctrine of the Church. We read in the ARCANA CELESTIA: "He
who does not know the arcana of Heaven. . . . supposes that the Word in the
letter or the literal sense of the Word, is the Doctrine itself. . . . But the
Doctrine must be collected out. of the Word, and while it is being collected,
the man must be in enlightenment from the Lord" (n. 9424). The great
significance of the difference between the Word of tile New Church, that is, the
Latin Word, and the Doctrine of the New Church out of that Word, here clearly
appears. If man is not open to the acknowledgement of this difference, the
arcana of Heaven will not be accessible to him. The Word is given to the Church
as the infinite and inexhaustible source of all truth, but its Doctrine, the
Church as of itself must bring forth from the Word by the orderly means. The
Doctrine is entirely such as the Church is; the purer the Church, the
more interior its Doctrine, and also the reverse, the more interior the Doctrine
the purer the Church. We read in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED: "Who does not
know that the Church is not Church without Doctrine" (n. 97). That by the
Doctrine here not the Latin Word is meant, but the Doctrine which the New Church
as from itself makes for itself, is evident. So too in the following passages of
the same work: "There are three things that make the Church, the truth of
Doctrine, the good of Love, and Worship out of these" (n. 486). "The
all of Religion consists in good, and the all of the Church in Doctrine, which
must teach truths, and through truths good" (n. 675). "The Church is
called Church out of Doctrine" (n. 923). And likewise in the ARCANA
CELESTIA: "The Church is Church out of the Doctrine of truth and the Life
of good" (n. 3305). In all these places by the Doctrine not the Word of I
he Church but the Doctrine of the Church is meant, and hence it is evident of
what great 5
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP
significance
it is
that one understands
the difference between the
Word and the Doctrine of the Church. It then becomes clear that in the spiritual
sense by the travailing in birth of the Woman the difficult birth of the
Doctrine in the Church is represented. It is by the spiritual sense that the
truth of the literal sense of the Word. to which the former corresponds, may be
seen in its essence, and it
The things from the Lord which make the Church are first formed as a.
seed, as the rational. This seed is conceived 6
FROM THE TRANSACTION'S Church.
Without such a generation, which is Divine, there
The things of the Church, conceived and born in such a way, are given to
it as something that is of Divine essence and imperishable. In this way the
truth has been conceived and born that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are
the Word of the Lord. Any one who has part in this conception and birth knows
that this is an imperishable Divine truth. In this way the concept of the
Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church has been conceived and born; and all
those who have part in this conception and birth feel that this also is a Divine
truth. A. truth of the Church not
thus conceived and born, does not exist. For this reason the truths of the
Church in the Old Testament are represented by the sons of Israel. But this is
also the reason why for those outside the Church, who have no part in the
conception and birth of its truths, it is difficult to see these truths.
The faith in the possibility and reality of this Divine conception and
birth of the things tha.t make the Church, opens the possibility and brings the
reality of regeneration, and a vision of the Doctrine concerning the Holy
Spirit. 7
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP The
sphere of the Holy Spirit is the sphere of the Divine things of the Church. It
is not the Word that makes the Church, but the understanding of the Word; it is
the Holy Spirit that makes the Church. By the Word alone without Doctrine out of
the Word. no one comes into the essential things of the Word, which are the
essential and really living things of the Church and the things of the Holy
Spirit. The genuine Doctrine is from the Holy Spirit, and the Doctrine alone
leads the Church into the sphere of the Holy Spirit. "By the Word of the
Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Host of them by the Spirit of His
Mouth" (Ps. 33 : 6). The Heavens were before the Angels were. So we read
that it was once given to Swedenborg to sec the extent of the uninhabited Heaven
(H.H. 419). The Heavens have been made by the Word, but the Angels, and
therefore the goods and truths of the Church, have been made by the Spirit of
the Mouth of the Lord; that is, by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Mouth of
the Lord is the Doctrine. The internal up building of the Church is only
possible through the Doctrine.
The comparison of the transition from the state of the Church where the
literal sense of the Word itself is considered as the Doctrine, to the state
where the Doctrine of the Church is seen as spiritual out of celestial origin,
with the transition from the geocentric to the heliocentric system of the
universe, is based on an actual correspondence. It is self-evident that such an
important general revolution in the thought of the human race must have a
spiritual sense; for the entire natural world and the entire history are a
theatre representative of the Lord's Kingdom (cf. A.C. 300U, 3483, 3518. and
many other places). This revolution corresponds to the state of the Church and
of each member of the Church when they can pass over from the spiritual natural
state to the essentially spiritual state itself. In the natural state, of which
the proper essence is obedience, the thinking must entirely follow the letter.
It is only the general truths that can be seen in this state. This may be
confirmed hereby that. the great importance of a strictly literal
translation of
each separate
word in
the Third Testament, was not
felt in the beginning of the Church. In the spiritual state, of which the proper
essence is genuine charity or the love of truth for the sake of truth, it for
8
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS the
first time becomes clear to man that the letter of the Word indeed is the basis
for the truth, but that genuine truth is always given in the internal man, who
then can see the truth in the letter of the word
It is according to order that the Church first must pass through a series of preparatory
natural states, before -the spiritual state can commence,
in which for the first time the Doctrine of the Church in its relation to the
Word of the Church comes to the fore. hi all of those preparatory states it
cannot be but that the Church regards the Word itself of the Church as the
Doctrine. Every Church from its beginning must as it were pass through all the
states of the ages of a man, entirely as has been shown on a previous
occasion (see Third Fascicle, pp. 90---108) with regard to the history of the
human race as a whole. Accordingly also in the history of the New Church a
series of successive, states may be discerned, which entirely corresponds to the
series of the great periods of the entire history of the human race. In the
history- of the New Church too 9 OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP there is as it were an
Adamic state, which is the age of its infancy; a Noachic state, which is the age
of its boyhood; a Hebrew and an Israielitish state, which is the age of its
adolescence; a state of the Coming and Sensual
Presence of the Lord. which is the age of its early manhood: a Christian state, which is the
age of its manhood: and a state of the Second Coming of the Lord or a proper state of the, New
Church itself, which is its old age. While, however. in the general series
in all periods
before the
Coming of the Lord the
basis for the thinking lay in the sensual things of creation, and in the
period between the Coming and the Second Coming of the Lord it lay in
the Divine Natural of the New
Testament. in
all the periods
of the
particular series the basis for the thinking lies in the Divine Rational
of the Third Testament. From this it is evident that; the Third. Testament in
the first periods of the New Church plays a .role corresponding to the role
which the sensual things of creation fulfilled in file ages before the
Incarnation of the Lord. and subsequently a role corresponding to the role which the Divine Natural of the Divine Human of the Lord fulfilled in the
(Christian age; and that this the Third Testament really only in the last
period of the New Church, which is the period of the Second Coming of the
Lord in the New Church, when the Church for the first time comes into the
fullness of its proper state, will be able to fulfill that. role which fully
agrees with its proper essence, as a result of which the Church for the first
time will
see therein
the proper
rational, that
is. celestial truth.
Every Church begins with a state of innocence of ignorance; this is the
celestial state of its infancy. For all beginning of a man or of a. Church must
be in the celestial of innocence. Tt is out of this celestial that in the course
of its boyhood and adolescence it. must go forth, descending through the
spiritual and the natural even into ultimates, in
order there,
in ultimates,
to find
the basis
for the independence which is necessary for adult age, in order
afterwards thence, by a wrestling through the natural as from itself, again to
climb up to the interior degrees, by which it arrives at the internal bases of
truth and in its own spiritual and celestial state.
The characteristic of the
successive ages
of infancy,
10 FROM THE TRANSACTIONS boyhood,
and adolescence, or as it were of the Adamic, Noachic.
Hebrew and Israelitish
periods, in
the New Church, was that for all their thinking they were always entirely
dependent on the direct cognizance of the letter of the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg, exactly like all Churches before the Coming of the Lord in their
thinking
The characteristic of the Adamic state
is the awe bordering on an overpowering of the man who for the first time sees
himself placed before the fact of the Second Coming of the Lord. Man in this
state is all admiration and adoration of the Lord, who has fulfilled His
promised Second Coming. Intellectual problems for him in this state do not exist
at all. He thinks it incomprehensible and wrong when he sees that the members of
the Church give their attention to such problems. The Word of the New Church 11
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP
It is only in the next state, which corresponds to the age of boyhood and
the Noachic period, that a certain intellectual formation of the thinking takes
place. Just as in the Golden Age creation itself was the Word, but in the
subsequent period, when the celestial degree was closed, a written Word became
necessary, so too in the Adamic state of the New Church the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg, as it were as a paradise, an' themselves the Word, in which man out
of celestial good by direct cognizance sees truth; but in the. next, the Noachic,
state, when man has left the celestial degree, the Writings are closed for him,
unless a spiritual understanding is formed with him from the Lord out of the
spiritual good which now, thanks to the remains of the preceding state, is given
to him as an unmerited advance, and unless this understanding is developed by
him, by which in the Writings he can see the spiritual truth of his spiritual
boyhood. The development of this understanding can only take place by his
applying to his life the truths of the Writings which he interiorly sees, that
is, by his shunning evil. The more he, in the light he has, lives in spiritual
charity, that is, the more he reduces the external with himself to obedience and
thus to order, the stronger this spiritual understanding becomes out of the
spiritual good, through which more and more in the Writings by direct cognizance
he can see the spiritual truth. The characteristic of this state is thus
failing the celestial good of the preceding state which, without anything
further made it possible for man to take direct cognizance of the truth the
intellectual investigation into the essence of the contents of the new
Revelation and into the essence of the new Religion, in the light of the
understanding which the Lord has formed out of the spiritual good with man and
which can serve him as it were for a Word, whereby he will be able to see in the
Writings of Swedenborg the truths which have reference to spiritual charity,
just as a written Word had to be given to the Noachic man, if in the creation
and in the things of their social life he were to see the spiritual truth. But
in this state the thinking remains limited to the most general concepts of the
Divine things which make Religion and the Church, such as man requires them for
this spiritual state of an as it were Noachic charity, and such as they may be
12
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS acquired
out of the advance of spiritual good, by direct cognizance of the letter of the
Writings, in the light of that formed and developed understanding. The thinking
in this state is never able, independently of the letter, to arrive at a concept
of the truth in its particulars such as it refers to the particular essence of
the Three Testaments, and to the particular states of the existing Church and of
the mail of the Church. The all of this state is determined by the fact that
then, thanks to the remains of the preceding state, the spiritual degree has
been opened as it were
by way of an unmerited advance, such as in the preceding state was the case even with the
celestial degree; and that out of this spiritual good, thanks to the fact that
man shuns evil. by the application of spiritual truths to the life of the
external man, the understanding for spiritual truth is developed.
In the next state, which corresponds to the first age of adolescence and
the Hebrew period, man has left also the spiritual degree. The all of this state
is determined by the genuine natural good which is now given to man thanks to
the remains of the preceding states as it were as an unmerited advance, and by
the necessity that now from the Lord out of that natural good a certain
understanding for natural truth be formed, which is developed by man, thanks to
the fact that he continues to shun evil by the application of natural truths to
the life of the external 13
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP if
the slight results of missionary work in our times are attributed essentially to
the deterioration of the world, therefore to a change of the state of the world,
instead of to a change of the state of the Church.
The state of the age of adolescence, which first corresponds to the
Hebrew period, later on pastes over into a state corresponding to the
Israelitish period. In this state is the lowest
point of the descending
or outward going line of the successive ages; and such a state is unavoidable.
since it is only there that the sensual Coming of the Lord and thereby the
inversion to the ages of ascent and of the return into the interiors can take
place. In this state man has left also the interior natural which in the Hebrew
state was given to him as an unmerited advance. The states of such an advance
are now past. since all possibilities thereto have successively been exhausted.
The characteristic. of this state is that man considers himself strictly bound
to the letter of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. similarly as the Israelites
were strictly bound to the letter of the Old Testament; and the all of the
essence of that state in its favorable sense is a strict external obedience to
that letter, while all the weight is put upon an external holiness, even to
corporeal and sensual things. The end in view in that state is the transition to
the age of early manhood, in which man arrives at the adult state and therefore
for the first time comes as it were to stand on his own feet. For in all the
preceding ages there was always an absolute dependence on a direct or sensual
taking cognizance of the letter, without which man never was capable of any
orderly thinking in the things of the Word. The beginning of early manhood for
the first time brings such an independence, which can only be made possible by
the Coining of the Lord at the end of the Israelitish state.
But before the Coming of the Lord can take place, man in the Israelitish
state first passes through serious trials and dangers. The essence of all the
states before the Coming of the Lord is that man out of a state of good which is
given to him as it were as an unmerited advance namely successively the
Adamic celestial good, the Noachic spiritual good, and the Hebrew natural good
by taking direct cognizance is made capable of an orderly but external 14
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS entirely
as all the historic Churches before the Coming of the Lord out of the good of
their respective degrees by direct cognizance were in truth, but not in the
actual, internal truth, but only in representative, external truth (cf. T1iird
Fascicle, pp.95-99). The essence, however, of all states after the Coming of the
Lord is that man, after taking direct cognizance of the letter of the Latin
Word, by the wrestling through his own natural should arrive at one of the
interior degrees of truth namely successively at the interior natural, the
exterior rational, and the interior rational. For only by the wrestling through
the natural
The end in view of the wrestling with the proprium or the shunning of
evil in the states before the Coming of the Lord is to be in the good which is
given as an advance; for out of that good there is direct cognizance of truth.
The end of the. wrestling with the proprium or the shunning of evil in the
states after the Coming of the Lord is to enter into one of the interior degrees
of truth; for only through the interior degrees of truth does man come into the
good of the Divine Human which in man makes the Church; for the interior truth
is one with good, as the Son and the Father are one. In the states before the
Coming the end in view of the endeavor lies in good, for truth afterwards
follows of itself; in the states after the Coming of the Lord the end in view of
the endeavor lies in the genuine internal truth, for the genuine good of the
Divine Human lies just in that truth. The states before the Coming of the Lord
are as it were states of the Human Divine, for thc:y perfectly correspond to the
states of the human 15
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP are
states of the Divine Human of the Lord, and they correspond to the states of the
human race after the Incarnation of the Lord. Now the entire essence of the
Israelitish state and the necessity of such a state arise, from the fact that
only in such a state the transition from the states before the Coming to the
states after the Coming, or the transition from the descending or outward going
development of man to the ascending or inward going development, can take place.
An advance of one of the interior degrees of good in this state is no longer
given. The all of this state depends on whether man, according to the
scientifics which he has out of the letter, continues to shun the evils of
the proprium
and thereby
is enabled
to continue to have faith in
the Divinity of the Writings of Emanuel
If man in tills Israelitish state perseveres in the combat against his
proprium, then, when the time has come, the Coming of the Lord in him will take
place. The Coming of the Lord in this state is made possible because in the long
run it proves impossible for man to maintain himself in the external holiness
which characterizes the Israelitish state. He gradually sees all those things to
which he first attached so much importance, since in them he saw the essence of
Religion, fall away from him. And this gradually more and more, until at last he
stands deprived of all foothold and nothing else remains than the affection for
truth. It is in this affection for truth, as it were as in a Virgin Mary, that
the Coming of the Lord is effected. This Coming consists in this that man now
recognizes that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg as to their letter are the
Word itself for the New Church. Then the Lord Himself in His Divine Human is
present with the man of the New Church for the first time in a sensual way, just
as the Lord was present before the senses of His disciples. Then on the basis of
the-Divine Human that is seen in the letter of the Third Testament, the
wrestling through the natural and thereby the ascending to the interior degrees
of truth can begin.
But if man in the Israelitish state does not shun evil, and consequently
the proprium more and more gains the upper-hand, there never will be such a
development with him as will make possible the Coming of the Lord, and
16 FROM THE TRANSACTIONS in
such a case it cannot be but that he will gradually regard the Writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg as purely human, and will seek the entire weight of the
Divine Revelation exclusively in the Old and the New Testament. For in this
state there is no longer any question of a good out of advance, out of which
good in the preceding states the Divinity of the Writings could interiorly be
felt; while the acknowledgement of the Old and the New Testament does not
require such a combat against the proprium, since this
acknowledgement belongs
to the
generally ruling tradition
of the Church and is easily compatible with the merely external piety in which
such a man lives.
It is clear that the concept-like problem whether the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg as to their letter are or 17
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP of
the Churches before the Coming of the Lord, for all genuine members of the
Church the interior faith in the Divinity of those Writings, out of the good out
of advance in which they were, was self-evident, except in the Israelitish state
where everything depends on a conscious choice between acceptance and rejection,
and the rejection signifies nothing less than a rejection of the Lord who has
now fulfilled His Sensual Coming, and thus of the Divine Human itself.
In the Adamic, the Noachic, and the Hebrew state, or what is the same, in
the ages of infancy, boyhood, and the first years of adolescence, the essence of
the relation of the Church to the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg lay in an
interior realization of their Divinity. In the Israelitish state, on the
contrary, or in the later years of adolescence, the weight no longer is in the
interior realization of the Divinity of the Writings, but the problem now is the
18 FROM THE TRANSACTIONS and
moreover that the rational in a certain way is present also in the Old and the
New Testament, since without the rational there never is a human, man in this
state does not realize. The position that the exegesis of the different
successive Testaments must take into account the fact of their being addressed
to different provinces of the mind, and that consequently there can be no
question of an application of the
law of correspondence between the discrete degrees of truth to the Third
Testament, and that thus the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE cannot be
applied to the Third Testament without difference or reserve, is based on an
idea which finds its origin in this difficulty, arising in this state.
The essence of the next state of the New Church, which corresponds to the
Coming and Sensual Presence of the Lord on earth, lies in this that the Church
begins to see and to acknowledge that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the
Word itself for the New Church. It is the fundamental truth of the Gospel that
in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah God Himself came on earth, that thus the Lord
is the Father and not a Son from the eternal. So it is the characteristic of
this state that the Church acknowledges that in the Third Testament the Human
and the Divine are one, that thus the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are Divine
even into the letter, and that there alone redemption and salvation are to be
found, and the essential things for the up building of the Church and for the
conjunction with the Lord. Nevertheless in this state the Church is not
conscious in a concept-like way of these facts; it is the time when the Writings
from principle are acknowledged as the Word, wherby the separation of the
majorities of the preceding state, who deny the Divinity of the Writings,
becomes complete.
This state is the state of the early manhood of the New Church. The end
in view of this state is that man by the wrestling through the natural shall
arrive at the interior natural, and thus at the first degree of internal truth.
In the Word of the Third Testament, as it is in itself, the Human and the Divine
are one. But if the Word is taken 19
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP place,
the Word with man therefore is not the Word. It is only after the wrestling
through the natural, by which man's proprium is overcome and forced back, that
in man the Human of the Word is conjoined with the Divine, so that the Word with
him is really the Word. The genuine
The end in view in this state is that man be prepared for the transition
to the next state. The essence of the next state,
which corresponds to
the state
of the
Christian Church and is the period of manhood, is the development of the
Doctrine independently of the sensual presence of the letter, just as the Lord
had to leave the earth, if the pouring out of the Holy Spirit were to become
possible (John 16 : 7, 13). But before this transition can take place again two
dangers present themselves, which as great difficulties for a long time adhere
to the Church. Man in the ascending state can arrive at the genuine truth of the
Third Testament in no other way than by the wrestling through the natural, by
which the Human of the letter in man is conjoined with the Divine. If man will
not realize the necessity of such a wrestling, then, according to his tendency
towards the Protestant or the Roman-Catholic disposition (cf. A.R. 387), he will
attribute to the letter of the Latin Word by itself either the proper Divine
essence itself, or the genuine Human essence itself. In the first case the man
says that the literal sense of the Third Testament is
the proper
spiritual sense
itself; in
the second
case the man says that the literal sense of the Third Testament, such as
it has been taken up by direct cognizance, is the proper rational itself. Both
these ideas are the result of the fact that it is not realized that before
regeneration the direct cognizance of the letter can never lead to the posses- 20
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS sion
of genuine truth, since thereby the proprium always plays a certain role; and
that therefore after taking cognizance a wrestling through the natural must
always first take place, by which the external man is conjoined with the
internal man, so that the man for the first time sees the genuine truth in the
Latin Word, in which the Human is one with the Divine.
The first idea, namely, that by direct cognizance of the letter of the
Third Testament one has to do with the spiritual sense itself, places the
Divine, that is the spiritual
The second idea, namely that the Third Testament is a Revelation of the
rational, so that man upon direct cognizance of the letter has to do with the
proper rational itself, places the proper Human in the letter by itself, while
yet the genuine Human can never exist anywhere else than in its unity with the
Divine. The conjunction with the Divine, however, exists in man only after the
wrestling through the natural. The letter of the Third Testament, as it is in
itself, that is in the Lord Himself, is indeed one with the Divine, and thus the
proper Divine Rational itself, but 21
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP never
as it is in man by direct cognizance. The Rational of the letter with man, upon
direct cognizance, becomes the sensual- or exterior-natural; and just as to the
Lord after His birth from the Virgin Mary there adhered the human of Mary, which
human He had to put off by the Glorification, so to the man in this state,
although the Lord has now been born in him from his affection for the letter of
the Third Testament which affection corresponds to Mary there adheres a
human that is only capable of a natural-rational vision of the Third Testament.
It is this human which man by wrestling through the natural must
Both these ideas have their origin in nothing but the instinctive
aversion of the proprium of man from a wrestling through the natural, since the
proprium there clearly feels its downfall. Both ideas seek salvation in the sole
letter in itself: the former considers that letter as the 22
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS
The next state of the New Church, which corresponds to the Christian
period and to the age of manhood, brings the development of the Doctrine of the
Church. This state is to be compared with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit,
which indeed characterizes the Christian Church. Just as the Lord had to leave
the 'earth, if this pouring out were to become possible, so the Church must
leave the letter of the Third Testament in the realization that within the
letter by way of correspondence all the infinite particulars of the proper,
abstract, spiritual truth lie hidden. The leading principle determining the
Church's attitude in this state is the thesis that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE
SACRED SCRIPTURE must also be applied to the Third Testament, and it is then
seen that the up building of the Church is possible only through the Doctrine of
the Church. The letter by itself brings to man only the generals of truth. The
letter in itself is of such a nature, purely Divine and infinite, that from it
into eternity ever new particulars of truth may be drawn. This drawing of the
particulars of genuine spiritual truth is the task of the New Church in this
state. The proper essence thereof lies in the masculine which has entered upon
the combat with the natural in a In
all these successive states of the New Church, however, from the beginning, the
proper and essential state of the New Church itself is present. The proper state
itself of the New Church is its celestial state, the old age of the human race,
in which the celestial seed of its truth, the celestial Doctrine, is conceived
as an immediate revelation from the Lord. It is the end of the creation of this
earth that this become the essential state of the human race, with which too the
Paradise itself will return to this earth, since in this state the influx from
the Lord can take place from the inmost to the outermost, by which the general
order of all things will be restored. But even from the first beginning of the
New Church this state is present as the 23
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP states
described above are not possible unless such interior rational or celestial
seeds of truth precede, from which those successive states in the Church are
developed, comparatively as the things coming forth from a seed.
25 DE
HEMELSCHE LEER EXTRACTS
FROM THE TSRTTE FOR JULY 1932 THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1932
Address by the Reverend Ernst Pfeiffer.
There were 46 persons present on Sunday evening for the celebration of
the Nineteenth of June.
The Rev. Pfeiffer welcomed those present and asked them on that evening
to try and enter into the spirit of the things that essentially make the New
Church, and to give their attention to a few of the most important of the new
principles that in the past year from the Lord have been given to the Church, as
leading truths for the up building of the Church.
It is gradually becoming clear to us that the Church is a Divine
institution, and that to it from the Lord is given a certain Divine power and a
certain Divine doctrinal authority, and that the salvation for man and for the
human race can be found only in the Church. This is a truth which indeed as
early as the beginning of the Christian church, which out of the loves of self
sought the essence of religion merely in external things, became a profane
falsity; but which in the New Church, in the measure in which by the victory
over the proprium it will come from the Lord into the internal things, will
become a living reality. This truth is openly taught in the Latin Word with the
explicit words: "Every one with whom the Church is, will be saved, but
every one with whom the Church is not, will be condemned" (A.C. 10766). The
abuse of this truth out of the love of dominion in the Christian church has
indeed led to spiritual slavery and thereby to the destruction of all internal
things, but on the other hand only the insight into the genuine essence of this
truth and a life according thereto will be able to lead the human race to the
victory over the proprium and thereby into genuine freedom. 26
We now begin to see the Church as an actual spiritual being, as a Man
before the Lord, and we now begin to understand why the Church is called the
Bride and the Wife of the Lamb.
In the Third Testament the Lord Himself is present in His Divine Human.
When the Church begins with man, then this Word lies outside of him before his
corporeal
Just as the Christian church believed that the Lord with His Coming had
brought an active redemption, so too in the New Church the danger exists that
one should see the redemption and
salvation merely
in the
external things of the new Word, while, however, the Divine things of the
Church must be born from the internal. We have learned to understand that all
the evils and falsities which have destroyed the former churches, and which are
described in the Third Testament, are also present and active in the New Church.
The natural sense of the Third Testament indeed treats of the former churches,
but the spiritual
Rev. Pfeiffer then requested attention for what a year 27
REVEREND ERNST PFEIFFER told
us about the essence of the Church as a Man, namely that the Church, like a man,
has a soul, a spirit, and a body. When things of this kind are for the first
time expressed, they seem so subtile, and they are so hidden and so difficult to
grasp that for a long time they pass by man's conception. Only after a
considerable time they take on a certain form. It is at present one of the most
important things for the development of the thought in
That which is actually the Church cannot be born with 28
THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1932 Word
is falsified. Into the true light of the Word man
There are two essential loves which precede all coming into existence of
the Divine things of the Church; the one love is in the internal man, the other
love is in the external man. The love in the internal man is as it were the
father of those things, and the love in the external man is as it ware the
mother of; those 'things. The love in the internal loves
of the proprium, to take up the wrestling through the natural, and to shun evil
and falsity as sin against the Lord (cf. DE HEMELSCHE LEER, Third Fascicle, p.
45). This genuine love for truth for the sake of truth in the Church takes the
form of an entire devotion to the Divine things of the Church, that is, to the
spiritual principles by which the Church can come into existence, or to those
things that make possible the regeneration of man himself; for truth is the
neighbor, and the neighbor in the spiritual sense is the Church.
Only where these two loves rule, the one as a soul in the internal man
and the other as a body in the external man, can that celestial marriage come
into existence in man, from which all Divine things of the Church are born. Both
loves are from the Lord alone; the love in the internal man is as a burning
fire, the source of all life in the man as a
Church; the
love in the
external man is
a complete devotion to the
Word of the Third Testament as the sole
If the man who from love for the truth for the sake of truth is in the
love for the Third Testament, in the light which he has, wrestles in the natural
with the proprium, and puts aside everything which he recognizes to be impure,
then in that love there forms, as it were as in a body, something that can
conceive the seed of the Divine things of the Church. The soul in the internal
man which is of the Lord alone,
descends as
a seed, as the love clothes
itself in the rational with a tender body, from which the Holy Spirit proceeds
in the Church. Thus the Divine things which make the Church are conceived in the
Church itself from the marriage of the Lord with the Church. All Divine things
of the Church which in such a wav have been conceived and afterwards born, are
in them- 30
THE
NINETEENTH OF TUNE 193 selves
again as it were a Church in small, with a soul, a spirit, and a body.
In the first time after the birth it is especially the soul which leads
the Church, since the spirit is as yet only present in germ. The Church in this
state is first as a tender child which is led by the intuition which flows in
from the Lord, without conscious exertion of the intellectual faculties. The
love in the internal man makes the soul, the loves in the external man make the
body. To this body,
The state of the spirit of the Church is essentially the state of the
development of the Doctrine. It is manifest that the childlike natural state,
when it is the soul which leads spontaneously, cannot in the long run maintain
itself, since the proprium has not yet been overcome. The proprium will soon
endeavor to rise up and to lay its hand on the things of the Third Testament and
of the Church, which are present in the external man. For to Mary and to that
which is born out of her, the proprium adheres.
When the proprium thus begins to show itself in that body, that is, in
the loves of the external man, then at
31 REVEREND ERNST PFEIFFER
is
meant by the dragon. Concerning the dragon we read in the MEMORABILIA, n. 5961:
"They all are dragons who confirm falsities by the Word. ... Its tail are
they who only read the Word, and place salvation therein, and who are not in any
Doctrine, saying that the Word in the letter is the Doctrine; but thus they can
defend whatever they wish", etc. That here by the Word the Third Testament
is meant, and by the Doctrine, the Doctrine which from the Lord is born in the
Church, is evident.
The spirit of the Church is developed only when the Church has reached
its adult state. This development depends entirely upon whether the Church in
the external man overcomes the evils that have come to light and thus removes
the proprium. By this cleansing of the body the spirit of the Church as it were
is given space for further development. Everything then depends upon whether the
Church applies itself to a further opening of the Word. The new interior light
that is thus given in the spirit, in the body brings the opportunity for new
evils to come forth which before were not active. A new purification thereby
becomes possible, and thereby again more space is given for the development of
the spirit of the Church.
So we have a manifest reciprocal action between the spirit of the Church
and the body, in the measure in which the letter to the Third Testament is
opened more, and a more interior light falls upon the body, and in the measure
in which afterwards the body is cleansed by the wrestling with the proprium in
this new light. It is this reciprocal action which alone can bring the true
interior up building of the Church, a Church which is truly Church, with a soul,
a spirit, and a body from the Lord alone.
Address by H. D. G. Groeneveld.
This day is the commemoration of the Second Coming of the Lord and of the
foundation of the New Church. We are seized with great fear when we realize that
the Lord is again on earth with the human race. The Lord is now present in His
Divine Human. In THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 30, we read: "'God is,
after the World was made, in space without space, and in time without
32 present
in the literal sense but not in the natural appearance of that sense. The Third
Testament therefore should be approached not with a natural thought but with a
spiritual thought deriving nothing from space and time.
The Lord is Love itself and Wisdom itself. Since Love has power only
through Wisdom, the Lord as to Wisdom has come again in the Third Testament, as
the esse for the existere of the conjunction with the human race. It is this
esse which spiritually into eternity has the substance for the New Church
established from the Lord. It is in this substance alone that the conjunction of
the Lord with the human race can take place, for which reason it is represented
by a bride, as appears from the second Verse of chapter XXI of the Apocalypse;
"And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband".
It is the
Church in time which always after having brought to existence the
substance of the esse of the conjunction, given it, must prepare itself for the
reception of a new substance for a more interior conjunction with t-he Lord.
Then the Church comes into the essence of the Third Testament, and the Church in
time is the bride with which the Lord conjoins Himself again. By the deeper
wisdom given to it the Lord then has power to combat the more interior evils and
falsities and to bring redemption. That the conjunction of the Church with the
Lord takes place when it prepares itself as a bride and that »it then
represents wisdom, appears from the work on CONJUGIAL LOVE, where in n. 21 the
signification of a wedding in Heaven is described.
We read there as follows: "And one out of the men of the wedding, a
wise one, said: Do you understand what the things which you have seen signify?
They said it was little; and then they asked him why the bridegroom, now a
husband, was in such a dress? He answered that the bridegroom, now a husband,
represented the Lord, and the bride, now a wife, represented the Church, because
a wedding in Heaven represents the marriage of the Lord with the Church. Hence
it is that on his head there was a mitre and that he was dressed in a cloak, a
tunic, and an ephod, like Aharon; and that on the head of the bride, now a wife,
there was a crown, and that she was dressed with 33
H. D. G. GROENEVELD a
robe like a queen; but to-morrow they will be clothed differently, because this
representation lasts only to-day. They asked again: Since he represented the
Lord, and she the Church, why did she sit at his right hand? The wise
The Church therefore is in the state of the bride when it
takes up
wisdom from
the Lord.
It is
the state
in -which the essence of the Doctrine of the Church as the spiritual out
of celestial origin, is revealed to it. After the fullness of the state in which
this spiritual out of celestial origin is given to it, the Church is no longer
the bride or the wisdom of the Lord. Husband and wife, or wisdom and love, or
understanding and will, together form the Church, and the conjunction of the
Church with the Lord is now dependent on the marriage of those two. It is the
husband or the love for the truth of the wisdom of the Third Testament, given to
the Church, which is now the prior love and the wife or the love for the
spiritual truth the secondary love. It is the state in which the wisdom given to
the Church must be brought into the will.
The Lord operates from firsts through lasts. The conjunction with the
Lord thus is only possible and therefore is entirely determined by the
application of the new truths of the Third Testament in the outermost of our
natural life or in our sensual life. All our thoughts and all our acts must have
the new things of the Church as their essence. All lusts of the proprium in
which we live must
34
THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1932 be
put aside and the things in the natural world by themselves, and the desires for
them, must come to be regarded
Conjugial love is the love for one of the sex. It is the love for that
spiritual truth only which alone fits our will as our own property, by which
wisdom and love or understanding and will become one man and thus one flesh.
Love for the sex, that is love for the truths in the natural, is a natural love.
This love should not enter into the will or the body but only into the
understanding. It is meant to be followed by conjugial love which is a spiritual
love and which is the desire for conjunction into one in the will. The bringing
of the truths in the natural into the will, together with a delight in those
truths, results not only in a strengthening of the proprium but also in
The chaste love of the sex is only there where conjugial love is; for the
spiritual love of truth loves the truths in the natural for the sake of the
spiritual. Conjugial love is in the
fulness of the true love of the
sex when the spiritual truth
in the will is conjoined into one as into one
All our love for the truths of the wisdom of the Third 35
H. D. G. GROENEVELD Testament,
given to the Church, must therefore contain in it the desire for conjagial love,
in order that the man of the Church may become a husband and the woman of the
Church may become a wife. For Heaven is one marriage and life there is only
possible in conjugial love. Now it is given to those who are in the New Church
to possess the true conjugial love, as appears from the work on CONJUGIAL LOVE,
where in n. 43 the following is written: "After these things an Angel
appeared to me out of that [the third] Heaven,
holding in his hand a parchment, which he unrolled, saying: I saw that you were
meditating about conjugial love. In this parchment there are arcana of wisdom
concerning that love, which have never yet been uncovered in the world. They
must now be uncovered, because it is of importance. Those arcana in our Heaven 36 BLANK 37 DE
HEMELSGHE LEER EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR OCT.DEC. 1932 A
CORRESPONDENCE ON THE ESSENCE OF THE LATIN WORD AND THE DIVINITY OF THE DOCTRINE
OF THE CHURCH BETWEEN THE REVEREND ALBERT BJORCK, AND THE REVDS. THEO. PITCAIRN AND ERNST PFEIFFER. (Note
by the Editor: The text of this correspondence has here been reduced to the
matter strictly bearing on the subject.) REV. ERNST PFEIFFER TO REV. ALBERT BJORCK March
16th 1932. Dear Mr. Bjorck. Please
accept our thanks for your pamphlet on the Doctrine of the Church.* I have read
the three articles with great interest.
Although from a first reading we are convinced that the truth of your
central argument, namely "that the natural degree of the mind regarded
in itself is continuous, but that there comes
into existence an appearance of discreteness in it by the influx of the
spiritual and celestial degrees" (cf. D.L.W. 256) has been fully
realized in our position as propounded in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, we have the
impression that your pamphlet is a very valuable contribution to the difficult
issue with which the Church is confronted at the present time. It impresses us
as of great importance that your specific point is pressed forward by you with
so much stress, and that it has now been presented by you with such ability and
plainness. We strongly feel that this will contribute much to the possibility of
a mutual understanding. *
Three Studies on the
Doctrine of the Church, by the REV. ALBERT BJORCK. Printed and Published for the
Author by W. J. Parrett, Ltd., Margate, 1932.
38
A
CORRESPONDENCE ON THE DOCTRINE
In the 5th paragraph on page 28 of your pamphlet you
But this does not take away the fact that the degrees of the mind must be
opened while man lives in the natural body. Angels and men alike must be
differentiated as to the three discrete degrees of life and of truth, and this
differentiation is based not upon a qualification of the two higher degrees, but
through regeneration, by influx, upon a qualification of the natural degree.
This fact is thus valid for both Angels and men alike. Your argument as
developed on page 21, paragraph one: "Men on earth, who in the Word they
have while living in the world, see truths that teach love to the neighbor, and
whose lives 39
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER TO REV. ALBERT BJORCK everything
you say to characterize the spiritual and the celestial is also an indispensable
requisite for an interior natural Church, which as to its internal is in
conjunction with the ultimate Heaven. If a man does not see truths in the Word
which teach love to the neighbor and love to the Lord, and if his life is not
formed by those truths, he is not even within the most ultimate borders of the
interior natural Church. Love to the neighbor and to the Lord make the Church
and Heaven even in the last degree. There are three discrete degrees, even with
man moreover
they can clearly be seen in the comparative description in the ARCANA of the
Adamic and the Noachic and the Hebrew Churches.
From our study of the difference between the natural and the rational,
which indeed as to their basis both belong to the natural degree of the
mind, we are led to hold that there are with man three discrete degrees of
Doctrine, and thus of doctrinals, cognitions, and scientifics. We readily admit
that these degrees are not in themselves discrete, but that they in reality only
appear to be discrete because they are discretely qualified by the influx of the
spiritual and the
celestial degrees. But nevertheless, this apparent discreteness is as real, as
if it
According to our understanding it is the interior natural that makes the
man of the natural Church; it is the exterior rational that makes the man of the
spiritual Church; and it is the interior rational
that makes
the man
of the celestial Church.
According to this view it is thus plain that it is a qualification of the
natural degree of the mind 40
A CORRESPONDENCE ON THE DOCTRINE into
apparently discrete degrees, by the influx of the spiritual
and of
the celestial, that
makes the
difference between the natural, spiritual, and celestial Churches. For
all of those
degrees, namely the interior
natural, the exterior rational, and the interior rational, as to their basic
essence, belong to the natural degree of the human mind. If this were not the
case it would not be necessary for man to be born first in the natural world.
Here you
As long as an interior natural man lives in this world, he is sensuously
conscious only in the external of the interior natural; when he leaves this
world he becomes sensuously conscious in the internal of the interior natural.
As long as a spiritual man lives in this world, he is sensuously conscious only
in the external of the exterior rational; when he leaves this world he becomes
sensuously conscious in the internal of the exterior rational. As long as a
celestial man lives in this world he is sensuously conscious only in the
external of the interior rational; when he leaves this world he becomes
sensuously conscious in the internal of the interior rational. And whereas, as I
pointed out before, the external of even the celestial man is discretely lower
than the internal of the interior natural man, it is quite plain why in one
specific sense it is said in the number quoted by you (A. 8443), that man
compared with the Angels is in the lowest, namely the sixth, degree. But this
regards rather the full sensuously conscious enjoyment of the different degrees
of truths than the essential possession of the concepts of the different degrees
of truths. Therefore it is said in this specific
sense that man cannot grasp the higher degrees of truths. But on the other hand
it would seem evident that the doctrinals. cognitions. and scientifics 41
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER TO REV. ALBERT BJORCK
of
the Adamic man were discretely higher than those of the Noachic man although
this discreteness is not a discreteness in itself but draws its origin from the
influx of the two higher degrees and likewise, in a general way, that the
doctrinals, cognitions, and scientifics of a celestial man are discretely higher
than those of a spiritual man, and those of a spiritual man discretely higher
than those of a natural man. The Doctrine, doctrinals, cognitions, and
scientifics of the celestial man of the New Church will be discretely higher
than those of the men of all previous Churches except the Adamic. Those men
could never grasp these thoughts and concepts. Your statement, however, that
"the highest rational sight of spiritual truth that man in the world can
ever acquire is on a lower degree than that of the angels", would give to
the Angels of the lowest Heaven a higher rational insight of spiritual truth
than to a spiritual or even to a celestial man, a conclusion which, it seems to
me, can hardly be maintained, if one realizes that the spiritual man thinks out
of the exterior rational, and the celestial man out of the interior rational or
out of the rational proper (cf. A. C. 1914), while an Angel of the ultimate
Heaven cannot think in the rational proper at all but can only think in the
interior natural, receiving an unconscious influx of the rational.
In using the words "the highest rational insight that man in the
world can ever acquire" you seem to indicate that you look for the cause of
the difference between the state of man as long as he lives in the world and his
state after death in the apparently discrete degrees of the natural degree of
the mind namely the different degrees of the rational which can be
distinguished while in reality the difference of these degrees is valid for
both Angels and men alike. The real difference between the states of man before
and after the death of the body, does not lie in the difference between a lower
and a higher rational, but between the external and the internal of the
different degrees of the rational. Both
Angels and men alike are distinguished by the different degrees of the rational;
but man is sensuously conscious only in the external of his respective degree,
while the Angels are sensuously conscious in the internal of their respective
degree.
To illustrate this still further: If a man has become a 42 celestial
man this is by virtue of the fact that he has been introduced from the Lord into
the interior rational, or the rational proper. This is the highest degree of
rational insight for both men and Angels alike. Nevertheless as long as he lives
in this world he is sensuously conscious only in the external of it, and the
thoughts of the celestial Angels who are in the internal of if, exceed by far
his own thoughts, so that they cannot be compared. But it would be a wrong
conclusion to think that "his rational insight" is on a lower degree
than that of the Angels of the second
For the sake of illustration I would like to ask you what you would think
of the following formulation of the contents of the second paragraph on page 68
of your pamphlet. I would suggest to have it read like this: "The celestial
sense of the Third Testament as it is with the Angels in the Third Heaven,
cannot be seen by man on earth, but it can be seen in a corresponding form by
man on earth, and that form is the form the Divine Truths take in the external
of the interior rational of a celestial man. And likewise, the spiritual sense
as it is with the Angels in the Second Heaven, cannot be seen by man on earth,
but it can be seen in a corresponding form by man on earth, and that form is the
form the Divine Truths take 43
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER TO REV. ALBERT BJORCK
in
the external of the exterior rational of a spiritual man. And likewise, the
spiritual-natural sense as it is with the Angels in the First Heaven, cannot be
seen by man on earth, but it can be seen in a corresponding form by man on
earth, and that form is the form the Divine Truths take in the external of the
interior natural of a spiritual-natural man".
In the third paragraph of the same page you say: "The internal sense
which men of the Church in the world can see
is one
with their rational
understanding of
the Word...", but exactly the same is true of the Angels likewise,
as you
pointed out yourself on page 48, line 210. This is thus not where the
difference lies of man's state before and after the death of the body. The
difference to us, as I pointed out before, would seem to lie in the fact that as
long as he lives in the world, man is sensuously conscious only in the external
of the different apparent degrees of the natural degree, while after the death
of the body he becomes sensuously conscious in the internal of those degrees.
This internal is the truly angelic spiritual or celestial itself, into which man
can never come as long as he lives in this world. But with both Angels and men
alike the discreteness of the different degrees of the mind is dependent on the
same qualification not of the two higher degrees but of the natural degree into
a very substantial though in itself only apparent discreteness.
I suppose you will have received the proofs of the article by Mr.
Groeneveld on The Coming of the Lord for Conjunction with the Church, together
with an elucidation which I gave of this article.* From this, our position with
regard to the discrete degrees of internal truths which since the Incarnation of
the Lord must become the basis for the thought of the Church, may become quite
clear. It seems to us that unless there would be a qualification of the natural
degree itself into a practically very real, though in itself only apparent,
discreteness, the difference between a celestial, a spiritual, and a natural
Church, would be non-essential. And therefore it seems to me that your central
point, namely on the great significance of the
* DE HEMELSCHE LEER, Third Fasc. pp. 86-108. 44
A CORRESPONDENCE ON THE DOCTRINE natural
degree of the mind in its relation to the two higher degrees, is the very
stronghold of our position; for the foundation of the celestial and spiritual
degrees does not lie in these degrees themselves, but in the natural degree,
with both Angels and men alike.
I would also be grateful if you would let me know what you think of what
has been developed in these proofs concerning the ages of the human race; namely
that the Third Testament is essentially addressed to the old age or celestial
state of the human race, when it is prepared to enter into the interior
rational. I wonder how you think this compares with your thought that the Third
Testament is the Lord speaking to the human race when it has arrived at the age
of rationality (see page 70, paragraph one). The age of rationality of which you
speak, if I understand you correctly, is
that of early manhood (juventus),
when the influx of the
rational is being received in the interior natural.
ERNST
PFEIFFER
One of your statements which does not appear in agreement with the Latin
Word is to the effect that the Doctrine of the Church is not Divine. In the
ARCANA CELESTIA 3712 we read: "Divine Doctrine is Divine Truth; and Divine
Truth is all the Word of the Lord. Divine Doctrine itself is the Word in the
supreme sense; ... from this Divine Doctrine is the Word in the internal
sense; ... Divine Doctrine is also the Word in the literal sense; . . . and
whereas the literal sense contains within it the internal sense, and this the
supreme sense, and as the literal sense altogether corresponds thereto, ...
therefore also the Doctrine therefrom is Divine. ... But Divine Truth is the
Divine Good appearing in Heaven before the Angels and on earth 45
REV. THEO. PITCAIRN TO REV. ALBERT BJORCK
before
men, and although it is apparent, nevertheless it is Divine Truth." The
APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 157, like
You speak in your STUDIES as if there would not be a discrete degree
between the Doctrine of the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial Church in
the New Church, for the reason that while man lives on earth he is in the
natural, and the natural is of one degree. Yet is it not evident that there was
a discrete
degree of difference between the Adamic Church, the Noachic Church, and
the Hebrew Church? That there will be similar degrees in the New Church is
clearly taught in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 350, and following numbers, where
we read: "Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand, signifies
celestial love ... with all who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.
In the supreme sense Judah signifies the Lord as to celestial love; in the
spiritual sense the celestial kingdom of the Lord, and the Word; and in the
natural 46
A CORRESPONDENCE ON THE DOCTRINE sense
the Doctrine of the celestial Church out of the Word. But here Judah signifies
celestial love, which is love to the Lord; and because he is mentioned first in
the series, it signifies that love with all who will be in the Lord's New Heaven
and New Church; for the tribe first named is the all in the rest". This is
a proof that the essential New Church is a celestial Church. In n. 351:
"Reuben signifies wisdom out of celestial love with those who will be in
the Lord's New Heaven and New Church". In n. 360: "Joseph signifies
the doctrine of good and truth with those who will be in the Lord's New Heaven
and New Church. Joseph signifies the Lord as to the Divine Spiritual; in the
spiritual sense the Lord's spiritual kingdom". In the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED,
n. 5557, we read: "As by Samaria, the metropolis of the Israelites, in the
Word is signified the spiritual Church, and by Jerusalem, the metropolis of the
Jews, the celestial Church, both as to Doctrine they are called women". In
the ARCANA CELESTIA, n. 4279, we read: "The sense of the Word is according
to the Heavens; the
From the above it is evident that in the New Church there will be a
Doctrine of the natural Church, a Doctrine of the spiritual Church, and a
Doctrine of the celestial Church, and that these Doctrines are communicated from
Heaven out of the spiritual and the celestial sense of the Word. In your STUDIES
you have brought out passages which teach that while man lives in the body, he
thinks 47
REV. ALBERT BJORCK TO REV. THEO. PITCAIRN
lowing
comparison. The body of an animal, a tree, and a stone, are all in the same
degree, nevertheless due to the soul or atmosphere which acts upon them and
forms them, there is as it were a discrete degree of difference between the body
of an animal, a plant, and a stone. DE HEMELSCHE LEER teaches throughout that
the literal sense of the Doctrine .of the Church is natural, nevertheless the
literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church is totally qualified by the degree
of the mind of the Church which has been opened. Thus the literal sense of the
Doctrine of the natural Church, of the spiritual Church, and of the celestial
Church, would differ in a corresponding way as a stone, a tree, and an animal
differ.
While a man in the natural world thinks in the natural, this does not
mean that essentially a man who has had the celestial degree of his mind opened,
is not wiser than an Angel of the natural Heaven; for a man in. Heaven, comes
into the essentials of the things he had on earth. It is evident that a man of
the Most Ancient Church was essentially wiser while living on earth, than a man
of the Hebrew Church is in Heaven.
While it appears to me that in the points referred to above you did not
go far enough, I enjoyed reading your booklet very much, and I believe it will
perform a use in the Church.
THEODORE PITCAIRN 48 Church
therefore in a very real sense is the Coming of the Lord to the Church and to
the individual man of the Church, if the Doctrine is from a genuine
understanding of the Divine Truth in the Word of His Second Coming".
The fact that you understand me to deny the Divinity of the Doctrine of
genuine truth in the Church seems to
The references you give in your letter do not clear up the difficulty.
Divine Truth is certainly Divine Doctrine, but men may have a certain
understanding of Divine Truth, be guided by it, and by the truth they see' and
obey be conjoined to the Lord, while this understanding of the Divine Truth is
still very imperfect and even mixed with falsities.
I agree that the difference between the Adamic, the Noahtic, and the
First Christian Church is one of discrete degrees, but when you proceed from
this to say that similar discrete degrees will arise in the New Church, I
disagree. Nor can I see that the references you give offer support for that
thought if compared with other teaching. What is said in the ARCANA CELESTIA
about Jacob and his sons and Israel and the tribes has led me to a different
understanding, the main features I will try to set forth as plainly as I can in
a few words. All the tribes together make one Church, though Judah is the head.
The other tribes signify
different states of those within the New 49
REV. ALBERT BJORCK TO REV. THEO. PITCAIRN Church
who by means of the celestial doctrine from the Latin Word can be regenerated.
The Latin Word reveals the Lord's Divine Human as infinite Love and
Wisdom, His Love one with Life itself and Substance itself going out to give of
itself to others, and His Wisdom the form of His Love, Life, and Substance, one
with and inseparable from them. The universal and particular faith of the New
Church as stated in the TRUE, CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 2 and 3, is the faith
taught by the Latin Word, and the truths of the Word proceed from the Lord's
Love for saving men and are all together Divine Doctrine. The central teaching
is that the Lord is the one God of heaven and earth and that He is Love and
Wisdom itself. That is celestial doctrine even when understood in a natural way,
as it generally is at first. An
affirmative disposition
to the
doctrine from natural good
is the first of regeneration and is signified by Dan. Under the influence and
guidance of the Doctrine Dan may become Joseph; but if the affirmative
disposition is not accompanied by the shunning of evil and doing of good, the
state signified by Dan is not really within the boundary of the Church, even if
a man's natural understanding is enlightened and becomes intelligent, and
therefore may be said to be signified by Ephraim, who represents the
understanding of the Word, both true and false, in the Church. In the APOCALYPSE
the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are not among those called. But as long as we live
in the world we cannot judge whether a man's voluntary
is affected
by his knowledge or understanding of Divine teaching or not, and
therefore whether he is of the Church or not.
The Doctrine of the New Church is celestial because proceeding from the
Lord's Love, and the New Church is therefore celestial in its essence from the
beginning, however different the reception of its Doctrine is with the men of
the Church. Judah, or love of the Lord, is the head, and from that head all the
tribes are governed or guided, even they whose understanding of the Divine
Truths is most natural.
The understanding I get from the ARCANA CELESTIA and the Latin Word in
general is that the three heavens, the highest, based on the Adamic Church, the
second,
50 based
on the Noahtic Church, and the first, based now entirely on the New Church, make
one whole, and each one is a discrete degree in that whole. You cannot divide
each one of the three heavens in discrete degrees, although the angels
which constitute them
receive the Lord's
life differently. This difference in their reception of life from the
Lord merely decides whether they are in the east, south, west, or north of the
heaven they are in. This understanding seems to be supported also by the fact
that the three heavens correspond to the three atmospheres, aura, ether, and
air, each of which is in a continuous degree.
The inmost and interior minds in the New Church would then seem to
correspond to the aura and ether within the air, which has more of the effluvia
and vapors of the earth in the lower regions than in the higher, decreasing in
density continuously. The relation in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n.
386, may be of aid to understand my meaning. The angel from the east I think of
as in the state signified by Judah, while he from the south in the state
signified by Reuben or Joseph.
In the spiritual world the interior state of the angels decides their
location and eternal surroundings. Here we cannot judge concerning a man's
interior, and the interior state of a man here is constantly changing according
to regeneration. To think of the New Church in the future as divided in discrete
degrees, forming a celestial Church, a spiritual Church, and a natural Church,
each with its own separate Doctrine, seems
to me erroneous. Nevertheless there will always be in the Church grades of
celestial life, in that some will see the truths of Doctrine from love to the
Lord, some from charity or wisdom from that love, and some from love of use
without any deeper understanding of the love and wisdom. I am aware that the view I have tried to put before you, may seem in opposition to other teaching found in the Latin Word. It needs elaboration and elucidation, but it would take considerable time to do that. I can only say that it is the result of a true desire to understand the Latin Word and of much reflection on what is said there. ALBERT BJORCK |
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