December 21, 2015

The Power of Truth from Good

A portion of a passage from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
He was called "the son of the right hand" because "son" signifies truth, and "right hand" signifies the power of truth from good, and in the spiritual world, truth that is from good in the natural man has all power.  All the power the spiritual man has is in this, because the effecting cause is in the spiritual man, and the effect is in the natural, and all the power of the effecting cause puts itself forth through the effect. (That all the power of the spiritual man is in the natural, and through the natural, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 9836.) For this reason he was called "Benjamin," that is, "the son of the right hand."

"Bethlehem" has a like signification, namely, truth conjoined to good in the natural man, David too was born there, and also anointed as king (1 Sam. 16:1-14; 17:12); for David as king represented the Lord in respect to truth from good, and this, too, is signified by "king" ....  For the same reason the Lord was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1, 5, 6) because He was born a king, and truth conjoined to good was with Him from birth. For every infant is born natural, and the natural, because it is next to the external senses and the world, is first opened, and this with all men [the natural] is ignorant of truth and desirous of evil; but in the Lord alone the natural had a desire for good and a longing for truth; for the ruling affection in man, which is his soul, is from the father; and with the Lord, the affection or soul from the Father was the Divine Itself, which is the Divine good of the Divine love.
(Apocalypse Explained 449)