2760. Preface

WHEN people stay with Scripture’s literal meaning alone and do not seek out an inner meaning from other passages in the Word to explain it, they are delusional. The extent of their delusion can be plainly seen from the number of heresies that exist, each of which uses the Word’s literal meaning to prove its own dogma. Consider especially the major heresy generated by self-love and materialism (in all their insanity and hellishness) on the basis of the Lord’s words to Peter:

"I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail over it. And I will give you the keys to the kingdom of the heavens; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in the heavens, and whatever you unbind on earth will be unbound in the heavens." (Matthew 16:15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

[2] People who stress the literal meaning think that these words have to do with Peter and that he was personally given this immense power. Yet they know that Peter lived an extremely simple life, that he never exercised this kind of power, and that to do so would be an assault on God’s divinity. Even so, self-love and materialism in all their insanity and hellishness prompt them to claim for themselves the highest power on earth and in heaven, and to make themselves gods. They therefore interpret the passage according to its literal meaning and vehemently defend their interpretation. In reality, the inner meaning of the words is that true faith in the Lord has this power (and such faith exists only in people who love the Lord and show kindness to their neighbor). Even at that, it is not faith but the Lord, the source of faith, who has the power. The rock here means this faith, just as it does everywhere else in the Word. It is on this rock that the church is built, and against it the gates of hell cannot prevail. Faith in the Lord has the keys to the kingdom of the heavens. It closes heaven to keep out evil and falsity, and it opens heaven to what is good and true. That is the inner meaning of the words.

[3] Like the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles actually represented all aspects of faith in the Lord (§§577, 2089, 2129, 2130 at the end). Peter represented faith itself; James represented neighborly love; and John represented the good done by neighborly love (see the preface to Genesis 18). Their representation resembled that of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (Jacob’s first children in the representative Jewish and Israelite religion), as can be seen from a thousand places in the Word. The words above were addressed to Peter because he presented an image of faith.

This shows what thick darkness people plunge into—dragging others with them—by interpreting everything literally, as we see from this declaration to Peter, which they use in denying the Lord the power to save the human race and usurping it for themselves.

2760. ² In John - in the Book of Revelation - the Word as to its internal sense is described as follows,

I saw heaven standing open, and, behold, a White Horse; and He who sat on it was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and goes into battle. His eyes a flame of fire, and on His head many jewels, He has a name written which nobody knows but He Himself, and He is clothed in a garment dyed with blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies that are in heaven were following Him on white horses and were clothed in linen, white and clean. And on His garment and on His thigh He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Revelation 19:11-14, 16.

What each individual part of this description embodies nobody can know except from the internal sense. Plainly, each one is representative and carries a spiritual meaning, such as 'heaven standing open'; 'the horse which was white'; 'He who sat on it was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and goes into battle'; 'His eyes a flame of fire'; 'on His head many jewels'; 'He has a name which nobody knows but He Himself'; 'He is clothed in a garment dyed with blood'; 'the armies in heaven following Him on white horses'; 'clothed in linen, white and clean'; 'on His garment and on His thigh He has a name written'. It is stated openly that the One sitting on the White Horse is the Word, and that He is the Lord who is the Word, for it is said, 'His name is called the Word of God', and after that, 'on His garment and on His thigh He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords'.

[2] From the interpretation of each individual expression it is evident that the Word as to the internal sense is described here. 'Heaven standing open' represents and means that the internal sense of the Word is not seen except in heaven and by those to whom heaven stands open, that is, those in whom love to the Lord and faith in Him-derived from that love are present. 'The horse which was white' represents and means the understanding of the Word as regards its interior contents. The next paragraph shows that 'a white horse' has this representation and meaning. 'He who sat on it' is, it is clear, the Word and the Lord who is the Word. He is called 'faithful' and 'one who judges out of righteousness' by virtue of good, and 'true' and 'one who goes into battle out of righteousness' by virtue of truth; for the Lord Himself is righteousness. 'His eyes a flame of fire' means Divine Truth glowing from the Divine Good that issues from His Divine Love. 'On His head many jewels' means all things of faith. 'He has a name written which nobody knows but He Himself' means that nobody sees the essential nature of the Word in the internal sense except the Lord Himself and he to whom He reveals it. 'Clothed in a garment dyed with blood' means the Word in the letter. 'The armies in heaven that were following Him on white horses' means people who have an understanding of the Word as regards its interior contents. 'Clothed in linen, white and clean' means that in these same persons love and faith derived from love are present. 'On His garment and on His thigh a name written' means truth and good. From these verses in Revelation and from those which come before and after them it is evident that around the last period [of the Church] the internal sense of the Word will be opened. But what is going to happen in that last period is also described in verses 17-21 of that chapter.

Footnotes:

577. The symbolism of twelve as faith, or as the properties of love and so of faith taken as a whole, can also be demonstrated by many phenomena in the Word: the twelve sons of Jacob and their names, the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Lord's twelve disciples. But these will be covered later [§§3858, 3913:1], by the Lord's divine mercy, especially in chapters 29, 30 of Genesis.

3913. She said, “Look—my maid, Bilhah,” symbolizes an affirmative middle ground between earthly truth and inner truth, as can be seen from the following: A maid or female slave symbolizes a desire for the knowledge suited to the outer self, as discussed in §§1895, 2567, 3835, 3849. This desire is a middle ground uniting inner truth with earthly, outer truth, so the maid symbolizes an affirmative middle ground between them. And Bilhah represents the nature of the middle ground.

On an inner level, the slaves that Rachel and Leah gave to Jacob for his women, to produce offspring, simply represent and symbolize something that serves—in this case, something that serves as a means of union, specifically between inner and outer truth. Rachel represents inner truth, and Leah, outer (§§3793, 3819).

Here where the text speaks of Jacob’s twelve sons, it is dealing with the twelve main, key methods by which we are introduced to spiritual and heavenly values when being reborn, or becoming a church. When we are reborn, or become a church, when from being dead we come alive, or from being body-oriented we become heavenly, the Lord leads us through many phases. The general phases are designated by these twelve sons and later by the twelve tribes, so the twelve tribes symbolize everything involved in faith and love (see what was shown in §3858). After all, general categories embrace all the subcategories and individual details, which relate back to the categories.

[2] When we are being reborn, our inner self needs to unite with our outer self, so the goodness and truth of our inner self need to unite with the goodness and truth of our outer self (since it is truth and goodness that make us who we are). These things cannot unite without a middle ground. By its very nature the middle ground draws partly on one side and partly on the other and causes one side to wane as the other waxes in our minds. This middle ground is what the slaves symbolize. Rachel’s slaves symbolize middle ground verging toward the inner self, and Leah’s slaves, middle ground verging toward the outer self.

[3] Clearly there has to be a means of union, when you consider that the earthly self on its own does not harmonize at all with the spiritual self and in fact clashes with it so strongly as to oppose it altogether. Our earthly self loves and focuses on personal and worldly advantages, but our spiritual self does not regard them except so far as doing so helps promote something useful in the spiritual world. So our spiritual self focuses on the services that personal and worldly advantages can perform and loves them for their usefulness and ultimate purpose.

Our earthly self sees itself as coming to life when it attains high rank and superiority over others, but our spiritual self sees itself as coming to life when it is humble and unimportant. It does not spurn lofty positions so long as they can serve as a means of benefiting our neighbor, society as a whole, and the church. This self considers the station to which we rise not in terms of our own advantage but in terms of the useful activities we look to as our goal.

Our earthly self feels blessed when we are richer than others and possess worldly wealth, but our spiritual self feels blessed when we have lots of knowledge about truth and goodness (which is wealth to the spiritual self), and especially when we do the good that truth teaches. This self does not spurn riches, because they allow us to do good in the world.

[4] These brief remarks show that the states of the earthly and spiritual selves are mutually hostile in their aims. They can still unite, however, when the demands of the outer self are subordinate to the goals of the inner self and serve those goals. If we are to become spiritual, then, everything in our outer self has to be reduced to obedience. We have to shed goals that look to ourselves and the world and clothe ourselves in goals that look to our neighbor and the Lord’s kingdom. But we can never shed the former and put on the latter, we can never join the two together, except through what is intermediate. These intermediaries are symbolized by the slaves, and specifically by the four sons born to them.

[5] The first intermediary is an affirmation of inner truth that says, “Yes, it’s true.” When we affirm this, we come to the threshold of rebirth. Something good is at work inside us causing us to make the affirmation. Before that affirmation, goodness cannot flow into our negative attitude or even into our doubt. After it, the goodness reveals itself in our emotions, when we find ourselves moved by the truth, or starting to delight in it—at first for the pleasure of knowing it but later for the pleasure of acting on it. For instance, take the idea that the Lord is the salvation of the human race. The lessons we learn about the Lord from the Word or in church reside among the facts in our earthly memory. Unless we affirm that the Lord is our salvation, none of these lessons can be internalized by our inner self; none of them can be united to anything that could form part of our inner faith. So a desire for that truth also fails to move us. It cannot even touch our general thinking on this subject, which is so important to our salvation. When we affirm the idea, on the other hand, countless new thoughts crowd in and fill up with inflowing goodness. Goodness constantly flows in from the Lord, but where affirmation is lacking, it is not received.

Affirmation, then, is the first middle ground and the first dwelling place for the goodness that flows in from the Lord.

The case is the same with all other concepts said to belong to faith.