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The spiritual states in us need to confirm what they have learnt from ‘others’
Doctrine of Faith 1. Faith is an internal acknowledgment of truth.By faith at the present day is understood nothing more than the mental presumption that a thing is so, because it is taught by the Church, and because it is not evident to the understanding. For it is said: Believe, and do not doubt. If you answer, I do not comprehend it, you are told that this is the reason why it must be believed. The faith of the present day, therefore, is a faith in what is not known, and may be called a blind faith; and as it is the dictate of one person passed on to another, it is an historical faith. That this is not spiritual faith will be seen in what follows.
Arcana Coelestia 6945(3)…And as there was no such force before the Lord’s coming, but only after His coming, when He had made the Human in Himself Divine, therefore they could not be taken out of the lower earth, where they were being infested by falsities, and be taken up into heaven, until after the Lord’s resurrection (n. 6914). From this then it is that it is said that they would not believe, thus neither would receive what the law Divine, that is, the truth Divine says, unless they saw that it is so, thus unless they saw signs.
AC 2831. Behind, caught in a thicket. That this signifies entangled in natural knowledge, is evident from the signification of being “caught,” as here being entangled; and from the signification of a “thicket” or “tangle” as being memory-knowledge-explained in what follows. That the spiritual are held entangled in natural knowledge in regard to the truths of faith, is as follows. The spiritual have not perception of good and truth, as the celestial have, but instead of it conscience formed from the goods and truths of faith which they have imbibed from infancy from their parents and masters, and afterwards from the doctrine of faith into which they were born. They who have no perception of good and truth have to be confirmed by knowledges. Everyone forms for himself some idea respecting the things he has learned, and also respecting the goods and truths of faith; for without an idea, nothing remains in the memory otherwise than as an empty thing. Confirmatory things are added thereto, and fill up the idea of the thing, from other knowledges, even from memory-knowledges. The confirmation of the idea itself by many things causes not only that it sticks in the memory, so that it can be called forth into the thought, but also that faith can be insinuated into it.
AC 6240…What the rational is shall be briefly told. The intellectual of the internal man is called “rational,” but the intellectual of the external man is called “natural;” thus the rational is internal, and the natural is external; and they are perfectly distinct from each other. But a truly rational man is no other than he who is called a celestial man, and who has perception of good, and from good perception of truth; whereas he who has not this perception, but only the knowledge that a thing is true because he is so instructed, and from this has conscience, is not truly a rational man, but is an interior natural man. Such are they who are of the Lord’s spiritual church. They differ from the celestial as the light of the moon differs from the light of the sun; and therefore the Lord appears to the spiritual as a moon, but to the celestial as a sun (see n. 1521, 1529-1531, 4060, 4696). [2] Many in the world suppose that a rational man is one who can reason acutely about many things, and so join his reasonings together that his conclusions may appear like truth; but this is found in the very worst of men, who are able to reason skillfully and persuade that evils are goods, and that falsities are truths; and the reverse. But he who reflects can see that this is vicious phantasy, and not what is rational. The rational consists in inwardly seeing and perceiving that good is good, and from this that truth is truth; for the sight and perception of such men are from heaven. That they who are of the Lord’s spiritual church are interiorly natural, is because they only acknowledge as truth that which they have received from their parents and masters, and afterward have confirmed in themselves; and do not see inwardly, and perceive, whether it is true from any other source than that they have confirmed it in themselves. It is otherwise with the celestial; and it is from this that the latter are rational, but the former interiorly natural.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
