24. A knowledge of correspondences, which makes the Word’s spiritual sense accessible, was not disclosed after those times because Christians in the primitive church were so very simple that it could not be disclosed to them; for if it had been disclosed, it would have been of no use to them, nor would they have understood it.

After that early period darkness arose over the entire Christian world owing to the rule of the papacy, and people under that dominion who confirmed themselves in its falsities were neither able nor willing to apprehend anything spiritual, and so neither anything of the correspondence of natural things in the Word with spiritual ones. For if they had been, they would have been forced to acknowledge that Peter does not mean Peter, but the Lord as a rock. They would also have been forced to acknowledge that the Word is Divine even to its inmost contents, and that a papal edict is of no account in comparison.

After the Reformation, however, because people began to make a distinction between faith and charity, and to worship God under the guise of three persons, thus three gods, whom they thought of as one, then the truths of heaven were hidden from them; and if they had been disclosed, the people would have falsified them and applied them to support faith alone, and not one of them to support charity and love. Thus they would also have closed heaven to themselves.

48. When the Lord was transfigured, He represented the Word in its glory. When the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James and John, we read that “His face shone like the sun, ” that “His garments became as white as the light, ” and that “Moses and Elijah appeared..., talking with Him.” Moreover, that “a bright cloud overshadowed” the disciples, and that they heard “a voice...out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son.... Hear Him!’ ” (Matthew 17:1-5).

I have been informed that the Lord then represented the Word. His face, which shone like the sun, represented His Divine goodness. His garments, which became as white as the light, represented His Divine truth. Moses and Elijah represented the narrative and prophetic portions of the Word — Moses the Word written by him, and in general the narrative portion of the Word, and Elijah the prophetic portion of the Word. The bright cloud that overshadowed the disciples represented the Word in its literal sense. That is why they heard a voice from it that said, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” For all utterances and answers from heaven are always made by means of outmost expressions such as are found in the Word’s literal sense, being made in fullness from the Lord.