The Name "Lord"

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The name "Lord" is often used in the Word.  One who has no knowledge of the internal sense supposes that nothing more is meant by it than what is meant by the use of this term in common speech; but "Lord" is never used in the Word except where good is treated of, and the same is true of "Jehovah;" but when truth is treated of, "God" and "King" are used. For this reason by a "lord" is signified good, as is evident from the following passages. In Moses:

Jehovah your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords (Deut. 10:17).

In David:

Confess ye to Jehovah. Confess ye to the God of gods. Confess ye to the Lord of lords (Ps. 136:1-3);

where Jehovah or the Lord is called "God of gods" from the Divine truth which proceeds from Him, and "Lord of lords" from the Divine good which is in Him.

So in the Revelation:

The Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings (Rev. 17:14).

And again:

He that sat upon the white horse hath upon His vesture and upon His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16);

that the Lord is here called "King of kings" from Divine truth, and "Lord of lords" from Divine good, is plain from the particulars; the "name written" is His quality; the "vesture" on which it was written is the truth of faith; the "thigh" on which also that quality was written, is the good of love. From this also it is plain that the Lord from Divine truth is called "King of kings" and from Divine good "Lord of lords."

From this it is also clear what is meant by the "Lord's Christ," in Luke:

Answer was made to Simeon by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death, until he had seen the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26);

the "Lord's Christ" is the Divine truth of the Divine good; for "Christ" is the same as "Messiah," and "Messiah" is the "Anointed" or "King" "The Lord" here is Jehovah. In the Word of the New Testament the name "Jehovah" is nowhere used; but instead of it "Lord" and "God"; as also in Luke:

Jesus said, How say they that the Christ is David's Son? for David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand (Luke 20:41-42).

The same passage reads thus in David:

The saying of Jehovah unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand (Ps. 110:1).

It is plain that "Jehovah" in David is called "Lord" in the Evangelist. "Lord" there denotes the Divine good of the Divine Human; omnipotence is signified by "sitting at the right hand".

When the Lord was in the world He was Divine truth; but when He was glorified, that is, when He had made the Human in Himself Divine, He became Divine good, from which thereafter Divine truth proceeds. For this reason the disciples after the resurrection did not call Him "Master," as before, but "Lord," as is evident in John (21:7, 12, 15-17, 20), and also in the rest of the Evangelists. The Divine truth, which the Lord was when in the world, and which thereafter proceeds from Him, that is, from the Divine good, is called also "the angel of the covenant," in Malachi:

The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, and the Angel of the covenant whom ye desire (Mal. 3:1).

As Divine good is meant by "Lord," and Divine truth by "King," therefore where the Lord is spoken of as having dominion and a kingdom, "dominion" is predicated of Divine good, and a "kingdom" of Divine truth, and therefore also the Lord is called "Lord of nations," and "King of peoples;" for by "nations" are signified those who are in good, and by "peoples" those who are in truth.

Good is called a "lord" relatively to a servant, and it is called a "father" relatively to a son-as in Malachi:

A son honoreth his father, and a servant his lord; if then I be a father, where is My honor; and if I be a lord, where is My fear? (Mal. 1:6).

And in David:

Joseph was sold for a servant. The discourse of Jehovah proved him. The king sent and loosed him, the ruler of nations opened for him, he set him lord of his house, and ruler in all his possession (Ps. 105:17, 19-21);

that by "Joseph" here is meant the Lord, is evident from the several particulars; the "lord" here is the Divine good of the Divine Human.

(from Arcana Coelestia 4973)

According to the State of the Organization of Man's Mind

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everything confirmed by the will and also by the understanding remains to eternity, because everyone is his own love, and his love belongs to his will; also because every man is his own good or his own evil, for everything that is called good, and likewise evil, belongs to the love.

As man is his own love, he is also a form of his love and may be called the organ of his life's love.

The affections of the love and consequent thoughts of man are changes and variations of the state and form of the organic substances of his mind. What these changes and variations are and their nature shall now be explained.

Some idea of them may be gathered from the heart and lungs, where there are alternate [expansions] and [compressions] or [dilations] and [contractions], which in the heart are called [systole] and [diastole] and in the lungs [respirations]; these are a reciprocal [distension] and [retraction] or [reciprocal stretching apart] and [closing together of their lobes]. Such are the changes and variations of the state of the heart and lungs. There are like changes in the other viscera of the body, and changes more similar in their parts, by which the blood and the animal juice are received and carried onward.

Like things are to be found in the organic forms of the mind, which are the subjects of man's affections and thoughts with the difference that their [expansions] and [compressions], or [reciprocations], are relatively in such higher perfection as cannot be expressed in the words of natural language, but only in those of spiritual language, and these can be defined in no other way than that they are vortex-like circlings inward and outward, after the manner of perpetual and incurving spirals wonderfully bundled together into forms receptive of life.

The nature of these purely organic substances and forms in the evil and in the good shall now be stated.

In the good, these spiral forms are turned forward, but in the evil, backward
    • the spiral forms turning forward are turned towards the Lord and receive influx from Him
    • those turning backward are turned towards hell and receive influx therefrom.
It is to be known that so far as they are turned backward they are open behind and closed in front; and on the other hand, so far as they are turned forward they are opened in front and closed behind.

From all this it is evident what kind of a form or organ an evil man is, and what kind of a form or organ a good man is, namely:

    • that they are turned in contrary directions

• the turning when once fixed cannot be reversed

• such as man is when he dies such he remains to eternity.

It is the love of man's will that makes the turning, that is, that converts and inverts, for, as has been said above, every man is his own love. It is from this that every man after death goes the way of his own love — he that is in a good love to heaven, and he that is in an evil love to hell; he finds rest only in that society where his reigning love is; and what is wonderful, everyone knows the way, it is like following a scent with the nose.

(Divine Providence 319)

***

Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. (Exodus 6:1)

It was believed from the law Divine, that it would come to pass that those who are of the spiritual church would be immediately liberated from infestations; when yet it is according to order that the evil who infest should be removed by degrees, and that they who are of the spiritual church should be liberated by degrees; for such is the Divine order; and therefore such is the law Divine; for all law Divine is of order, insomuch that whether we say, the law Divine, or the law of Divine order, it is the same.

Concerning this law, they who are of the spiritual church are now instructed, and that it is from this law that they are certain to be liberated when the time and state according to order arrives. That Moses (by whom is here represented the law Divine, such as it is with those of the spiritual church when they are in a state of infestations) believed from the law Divine that it would come to pass that they would be immediately liberated from infestations, is plain from what he said at the close of the preceding chapter, namely,

Wherefore hast Thou done evil unto this people? Why is this that Thou hast sent me? And liberating Thou hast not liberated Thy people. (Exodus 5:22-23)

by which words is signified that they were too much infested by falsities, when yet the law proceeding from the Divine seems to say otherwise, and that in this way they have not been released from a state of infestations.

That those who are of the spiritual church, and who are in the lower earth, would be gradually liberated from infestations, and not immediately, is because the evils and falsities that cling to them cannot otherwise be removed, and goods and truths be instilled in their place.

This is effected by many changes of state, thus successively by degrees.

They who believe that man can be immediately introduced into heaven, and that this is solely of the Lord's mercy, are very much mistaken. If this were possible, all whatsoever who are in hell would be raised into heaven, for the Lord's mercy extends to all. But it is according to order that everyone carries with him his life which he had lived in the world, and his state in the other life is according to this, and that the mercy of the Lord flows in with all, but is diversely received, and by those who are in evil, is rejected. 

As in the world they have imbued themselves with evil, they also retain it in the other life, nor is amendment possible in the other life, for the tree lies where it has fallen.

From all this it is evident that it is according to order that those who have lived in good, and with whom there are also gross and impure things which pertain to the love of the world and the love of self, cannot be associated with those who are in the heavens until these things have been removed. From all this it is evident that liberation from infestations is effected successively by degrees.

(from Arcana Coelestia 7186)

A House ~ The Natural Mind and The Rational Mind

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A "house" in the internal sense is the natural mind, for the natural mind, as also the rational mind, is like a house: the husband therein is good, the wife is truth, the daughters and sons are affections of good and truth, and also goods and truth derived from the former as parents; the maidservants and menservants are the pleasures and memory-knowledges which minister and confirm. . . .

That the natural and the rational mind of man are called a "house," is evident from the following passages:

When the unclean spirit is gone out from a man, he wandereth through dry places, seeking rest; and if he findeth it not, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And if on coming he findeth it swept and garnished, he then goeth away and taketh to him seven other spirits worse than himself; and they enter in and dwell there (Luke 11:24-26);

the "house" here denotes the natural mind, which is called a "house that is empty and swept" when there are within it no goods and truths, which are the husband and wife; no affections of good and truth, which are the daughters and sons; nor such things as confirm, which are the maidservants and menservants. The man himself is the "house," because the rational and the natural mind make the man; and without these things, that is, without goods and truths and their affections and the ministry of these affections, he is not a man, but a brute.

The mind of man is also meant by a "house" in the same evangelist:

Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falleth upon house (Luke 11:17);

And in Mark:

If a kingdom be divided against itself, this Kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, this house cannot stand. No one can pillage the vessels of a strong man after entering into his house, unless he first bind the strong man; and then he pillages his house (Mark 3:24, 25, 27);

by "kingdom" is signified truth, and by "house," good; "house" signifies good in an eminent sense.

In Luke:

If the master of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would at least have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through (Luke 12:39).

Again:

From henceforth there shall be five in one house [divided], three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother (Luke 12:52-53);

where the subject treated of is the spiritual combats into which those who are of the church will come, after the internal or spiritual things of the Word have been opened. The "house" denotes man or his mind; "father," "mother," "son," and "daughter" are goods and truths with their affections, and in the opposite sense evils and falsities with their affections, from which and with which there is combat.

The Lord's command to His disciples:

Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house; and if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall return upon you; but remain in the same house; eat and drink what they have; pass not from house to house (Luke 10:5-7);

represented that they should abide in good itself, that is, in the good of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, and not pass into any other.

***

Heaven itself is called the "house of God," because therein is nothing else than good and truth, and the good acts through truth united or conjoined with itself. This is also represented in marriages between a husband and wife who constitute one house, by reason that conjugial love comes forth from the Divine marriage of good and truth; and both the husband and the wife have a will from good, but with a difference such as is that of good in respect to its own truth; and therefore good is signified by the husband, and truth by the wife; for when there is one house, then good is the all therein, and truth, being of good, is also good. (from Arcana Coelestia 3538)

(from Arcana Coelestia 5023)