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Apocalypse Explained

208 [3] Therefore he that approaches the Lord, acknowledges Him, and believes in Him, is said to open the door to the Lord, that he may enter in. In Revelation:

Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:20).

What this means will be told in what follows where this part of the chapter will be explained. Here something shall merely be said about doors or gates, in respect to man, since it is said, “I stand at the door and knock.” To man’s rational two ways lead, one from heaven, the other from the world. By the way from heaven good is introduced, by the way from the world truth is introduced. So far as the way from heaven is opened with man, so far he is affected by truth and becomes rational, that is, sees truth from the light of truth. But if the way from heaven is shut, man does not become rational; for he does not see truth, and yet it is truth from the light of truth that makes the rational; he can, indeed, reason about truth, and from reasoning or from memory can talk about it; but he is not able to see whether truth is truth.

To think well about the Lord and about the neighbor opens the way from heaven; while to think not well about the Lord and to think evil about the neighbor shuts that way.

As there are two ways that lead into man, so there are two doorways or gates through which entrance is effected. Through the gate or doorway that is opened from heaven the spiritual affection of truth from the Lord enters, because through that door (as was said above), good enters, and all spiritual affection of truth is from good; but by the gate or doorway that is open from the world all knowledge from the Word and from preaching from the Word enters, since by this way truth enters (as was also said above), for the knowledges from the Word and from preaching therefrom are truths. The spiritual affection of truth joined with such knowledges constitutes man’s rational, and enlightens it according to the quality of the truth conjoined to good, and according to the quality of the conjunction.

209. [2] It should be known that there are two principal things of the church, namely, the acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divine in His Human, and making the truths from the Word to be of one’s life;

moreover, no one can be in the one of these unless he is at the same time in the other; for all truths that are made to be of the life are from the Lord, and this is done with those who acknowledge the Divine in His Human.

For the Lord flows in with all, as well in the heavens as on the earth, from His Divine Human, and not from the Divine separately. Consequently those who in their thought separate the Divine of the Lord from His Human, and look to the Divine of the Father not as in the Human but as beside it or above it, thus separated from it, receive no influx from the Lord nor thus from heaven, for all who are in the heavens acknowledge the Lord’s Divine Human (see concerning this in the work on Heaven and Hell 2-12, 59-72, 78-86. From this it is clear that all truths that are made of the life are from the Lord with those who acknowledge the Divine in His Human, that is the Divine Human. Truths become of the life when man loves them, thus when he wills them and does them, for he who loves, wills and does; in a word, truths are made of the life when man from affection lives according to them. Such truths are from the Lord because the Lord flows into the love with man, and through the love into truths and thus makes them to be of the life.

Arcana Coelesita

5922 [7] Hence also it was that over the tabernacle there appeared a cloud by day and a fire by night, because the tabernacle represented the Divine Human of the Lord, consequently the Divine truth which proceeds from Him, thus the Word which is the Divine truth of the church (see n. 3210, 3439).

4] That “glory” is predicated of the Divine truth which is from the Divine Human of the Lord, and that it is attributed to the Lord as a king (for in the internal sense the “royalty” is Divine truth, n. 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068), is evident in John:

But the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

The “Word” is Divine truth, and as this proceeds from the Lord, it is the Lord Himself; and hence “glory” is predicated of Divine truth.

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.