1. The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

112. Since it was foretold that at the end of the present church darkness would again arise, when the Lord was no longer known or acknowledged as the God of heaven and earth, and when faith was divorced from charity, therefore to keep a genuine understanding of the Word from perishing as a consequence, it has pleased the Lord to reveal now the spiritual sense of the Word and to show that the Word in that sense, and so in the natural sense, has the Lord and the church as its subject, and indeed these alone; and to do much else by which to restore the light of truth from the Word that has been almost extinguished.

[2] That the light of truth would be almost extinguished at the end of the present church is something foretold in many places in the book of Revelation. It is also meant by these words of the Lord in Matthew:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then...they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with...glory and power. (Matthew 24:39, 30)

The sun there means the Lord in relation to love; the moon the Lord in relation to faith; the stars the Lord in relation to concepts of goodness and truth; the Son of man the Lord in relation to the Word; the clouds the literal sense of the Word; and glory the spiritual sense and its shining through in the literal sense.

9. 2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. This can best be seen from illustrations, such as the following. In the book of Revelation, John says:

I saw heaven opened, when behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and does combat. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many jewels. He had a name written that no one knew but Himself. He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and His name is called “The Word of God.” (His) hosts in heaven followed Him on white horses, wearing fine linen, white and clean.... He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

I saw moreover an angel standing in the sun, who cried with a loud voice..., “Come and gather together for the great supper..., that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:11-18)

No one can see the symbolic meanings of these words apart from the Word’s spiritual sense, and no one can see the spiritual sense apart from a knowledge of correspondences. For the words are all correspondents; no word there is without meaning.

A knowledge of correspondences makes plain the symbolic meaning of the white horse and of Him who sat on the horse, of the eyes that were like a flame of fire, of the jewels on the head, of the garment stained with blood, of the white linen worn by His hosts in heaven, of the angel standing in the sun, of the great supper for which all were to come and gather together, and of the flesh of kings, commanders, and several others that they were to eat.

[2] The symbolic meanings of each of these images may be seen in the short book, The White Horse, where we explained them. We therefore forgo any further explanation of them here. In that short book we showed that the above description is a depiction of the Lord in relation to the Word, that His eyes like a flame of fire, the jewels on His head, and the name that no one knew but Himself mean the Word’s spiritual sense, and that no one knows that sense but the Lord Himself and he to whom the Lord wills to reveal it. We showed as well that the garment stained with blood means the Word’s natural sense, which is its literal sense, to which violence has been done.

That it is the Word which is so described is clearly apparent, for we are told that His name is called “The Word of God.” And that it is the Lord who is meant is also clearly apparent, for we are told that the name written of Him who sat on the horse was “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

That the Word’s spiritual sense will be revealed at the end of the church is symbolically meant not only by what we have now said about the horse and Him who sat on it, but also by the great supper to which the angel standing in the sun summoned people to come and eat the flesh of kings and commanders, of mighty men, of horses and of those who sit on them, and of all people, free and slave.

All of these statements would be meaningless words, devoid of life or spirit, without something spiritual concealed within them, like a soul in its body.