The Spiritual Sense of the Word is at this Day Revealed

From Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, signifies the spiritual sense of the Word revealed by the Lord, and the interior understanding of the Word disclosed thereby; which is the coming of the Lord.

By "heaven was seen open" is signified a revelation from the Lord, and the manifestation, concerning which below. By "a horse" is signified the understanding of the Word, and by "a white horse" the interior understanding of the Word; and as this is signified by "a white horse," and as the spiritual sense is the interior understanding of the Word, therefore that sense is signified here by "the white horse." The reason that this is the coming of the Lord, is because it manifestly appears by that sense that the Lord is the Word, and that the Word treats of Him alone, and that He is the God of heaven and earth, and that from Him alone the New Church exists. The Lord said that:

They should see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with glory and power (Matt. 17:5; 24:30; 26:64; Mark 14:61, 62; Luke 9:34-35; 21:27; Rev. 1:7; Acts 1:9, 11).

And the Lord said this also where He spoke with the disciples concerning the consummation of the age, which is the last time of the church, when the judgment takes place.

Everyone who does not think beyond the sense of the letter, believes that when the Last Judgment shall come, the Lord will appear in the clouds of heaven with the angels and sounds of trumpets. But that this is not meant, but that He will appear in the Word.... And the Lord appears manifestly in the spiritual sense of the Word. It appears not only that He is the Word, that is, the Divine truth itself, and that He is the inmost of the Word, and thence the all of it; but also that He Himself is the one God, in whom is the Trinity, and thus the only God of heaven and earth; and moreover that He came into the world, that He might glorify His Human, that is, make it Divine.

The Human which He glorified, that is, made Divine, was the natural human, which He could not glorify or make Divine but by taking on the human in a virgin in the natural world; to which He then united His Divine, which He had from eternity. That unition was effected by temptations admitted into the human that He had taken, the last of which was the passion of the cross, and at the same time by the fulfilling of all things of the Word; not only by the fulfilling of all things of the Word in its natural sense, but also by the fulfilling of all things of the Word in its spiritual sense and in its celestial sense; in which, as was said above, He alone is treated of.

But on these things, see what are manifested in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture.

Now, because the Lord is the Word, and the Word became flesh (John 1:1-2, 14), and the Word became flesh that He might fulfill it, it is manifest that the Lord's coming in the Word is meant by His appearing "in the clouds of heaven." That "the clouds of heaven" signify the Word in the sense of the letter....

It is manifest that the Lord's appearing in the Word is meant, because the interior understanding of the Word is signified by "the white horse," and it is said that the name of Him that sat upon the horse is "The Word of God," and that His name is "King of kings and Lord of lords" (verses 13, 16).

It is now manifest from this, that by "I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse," is signified the spiritual sense of the Word revealed by the Lord, and thereby the interior understanding of it disclosed; which also is the coming of the Lord. That the spiritual sense of the Word is at this day revealed, concerning which no one in the Christian world has before known anything, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia, where the two books of Moses, Genesis and Exodus are explained according to that sense; also in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 5-26); in a little work Concerning the White Horse from beginning to end, and in the things collected there from the Arcana Coelestia concerning the Sacred Scripture; and besides in these explanations upon Revelation, where not a single verse can be understood without the spiritual sense.

(Apocalypse Revealed 820)

How in Succeeding Time Wisdom Retired

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The literal sense of the Word is threefold; namely, historical, prophetical, and doctrinal, each of which is such that it may be apprehended even by those who are in externals.

As regards the Word the case is this: In the most ancient time, when the celestial church existed, the Word was not, because the men of that church had the Word inscribed on their hearts; for the Lord taught them immediately through heaven what was good, and thence what was true, and gave them both to perceive from love and charity, and to know from revelation. To them the veriest Word was the Lord.

After this church another succeeded that was not celestial but spiritual, and at first this church had no other Word than that which had been gathered from the most ancient people; which Word was representative of the Lord, and significative of His kingdom; thus the internal sense was to them the very Word. (That they had also a written Word, both historic and prophetic, which is no longer extant; and that in this there was in like manner an internal sense, which had relation to the Lord, may be seen AC 2686.) Hence it was the wisdom of that time both to speak and to write by representatives and significatives; within the church concerning Divine things, and out of the church concerning other things; as is evident from the writings of those ancient people which remain with us.

But in process of time this wisdom perished, to such a degree that at last they did not know that there was any internal sense even in the books of the Word. The Jewish and Israelitish nation was of the character ... and accounted the prophetic Word holy from the fact that it sounded ancient, and they heard the name Jehovah in the sense of the letter; and they did not believe that anything Divine was deeply hidden within it; nor does the Christian world think any more reverently of the Word.

From this we can see how in succeeding time wisdom retired from inmost things to outermost; and that man had removed himself from heaven, and had at last descended even to the dust of the earth, wherein he now places wisdom. As it has fared thus with the Word, so that its internal sense has been successively obliterated, and at this day to such a degree that it is not known that there is such a sense, when yet this sense is the veriest Word in which the Divine proximately dwells...

(Arcana Coelestia 3432)

Why the Word is called by some the Book of Heresies

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

For as for this Moses, the man that made us come up out of the land of Egypt,
we know not what hath become of him.

That this signifies that it is altogether unknown what other Divine truth there is in the Word, which raises man from what is external into what is internal, and makes the church, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the Word, thus as being Divine truth; consequently doubt and denial that there is any other Divine truth than that which stands forth in the sense of the letter, is signified by the words, "as for this man Moses, we know not what hath become of him." It is said "this man," because by "man" in the Word is signified truth. And from the signification of "bringing the sons of Israel up out of the land of Egypt," as being elevation out of the natural or external man to the internal or spiritual man, in order that he may become the church; for by "the land of Egypt" is signified the natural or the external of the church; by "making to come up" is signified elevation; and by "the sons of Israel" is signified the church....

From all this it is evident that by the words, "as for this Moses, the man that made us to come up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what hath become of him," is signified that it is altogether unknown what other Divine truth there is in the Word, which raises man from what is external into what is internal, and makes the church, than that which stands forth in the sense of the letter. So likewise do all those think and speak who are in external things without internal; and all those are in external things without internal who are in the loves of self and of the world. For with such the internal man is closed, and only the external man is open; and that which the external man without the internal sees when he reads the Word, he sees in thick darkness, because in spiritual things natural light, without light from heaven, is mere thick darkness, and light from heaven enters through the internal man into the external and enlightens it. From this it is that so many heresies have arisen, and that the Word is called by some the Book of Heresies, and that it is wholly unknown that there is anything internal in the Word; and those who think that there is such an internal still do not know wherein it lies. That it is such who are meant by the dragon which drew with its tail the third part of the stars from heaven and cast them to the earth (Rev. 12) will of the Lord's Divine mercy be shown elsewhere.

Let such observe as will, whether at the present day anyone knows otherwise than that the Divine itself of the Word is the sense of its letter. But let them consider also whether anyone can know the Divine truths of the Word in this sense except by means of doctrine therefrom, and that if he has not doctrine for a lamp he is carried away into errors, wherever the obscurity of his understanding and the delight of his will lead and draw him. The doctrine which must be for a lamp is what the internal sense teaches, thus it is the internal sense itself, which in some measure lies open to everyone (even if he does not know what the internal sense is) who is in what is external from what is internal, that is, whose internal man is open. For heaven (which is in the internal sense of the Word) flows in with such a man when he reads the Word, enlightens him, and gives him perception, and thus teaches him. Nay, if you will believe it, with man the internal man is of itself in the internal sense of the Word, because it is a heaven in the least form, and consequently when it is open it is with the angels in heaven, and is therefore also in like perception with them. This can also be seen from the fact that the interior intellectual ideas of man are not such as are his natural ideas, to which nevertheless they correspond.

But of the nature of these ideas man is not aware so long as he lives in the body; but he comes into them spontaneously when he comes into the other life, because they are implanted in him, and by means of them he is forthwith in fellowship with the angels. From this it is evident that the man whose internal is open, is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it. From this he has enlightenment when he reads the Word, but according to the light that he can have by means of the knowledges which he has.

(Arcana Coelestia 10400)