book review
The Ten Commandments
The Secrets of Spiritual Growth
Found in God’s Principles for Living
Translators: The Rev. Dr. George F. Dole, the Rev. Dr.
Jonathan S. Rose and B. Erikson Odhner
T
he Ten Commandments are the first part of the Word revealed by the
Lord, and constitute its foundation and core. They were known long
before they were revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai; they were given then,
very dramatically and engraved on stone, to impress upon people that they are
not just man-made laws but Divine laws. Human society would be impossible
without them. Similar sets of principles – echoes of those Commandments –
are found in all the world’s religions.
The various other teachings and stories of the Word are reminders or
ex pansions or demonstrations of the Commandments given in Exodus and
repeated in Deuteronomy. And in the New Church, their deeper, spiritual
meaning has been revealed. We see that they refer to more than natural killing
and stealing and adultery, but to the spiritual wrongs these things represent.
The whole book on Conjugial Love, for example, is really an unfolding of the
sixth Commandment. In that book, the full spectrum of meaning contained in
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is set forth, explained and illustrated.
“Behold, I make all things new,” the Lord says. (Revelation 21:5) The new
light shone upon the Ten Commandments in the Heavenly Doctrine, revealing
so much that is in them which was not seen before, is an example of how the
Lord’s promise to “make all things new” has been fulfilled. Some of the oldest
writing in existence is now shown to be as fresh as ever, and even more vitally
important and illuminating than people dreamed.
The inner spiritual meaning of the Ten Commandments is revealed in
four places in the Heavenly Doctrine, and now, all four of these commentaries
have been published together in one volume for the first time, in a new book
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