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could nevertheless reveal the Divine
Word through him is a vital point of
doctrine. For since we believe that
the Writings are true, we must have a
rational answer to critics.
Here we can turn to the past, for
knowledge of how previous revelations
were given will enable us to understand
Swedenborg’s inspiration in clearer
light. Thus, the Old Testament was
written through Divinely chosen
scribes – Moses, the prophets and
others Divinely chosen. How is it, then,
that what they wrote was the Lord’s and
not their own? It is because they wrote
down, verbatim, what was dictated to
them by the Lord. In this the Lord uses
angels as His spokesman.
We are told: “Sometimes the Lord
so fills an angel with His Divine that the angel does not know that he is not the
Lord.” (Divine Providence 96:6) When so infilled, the “angels speaks not from
himself but from the Lord.” His words are not the Lord’s. (Arcana Coelestia
1745:3) All that is the angel’s own is quiescent. Such “subject angels” appeared
to the scribes of the Old Testament. “They [these scribes] wrote as [subject
angels] dictated, for the very words which they wrote were uttered in their
ears.” (Ibid. 7055:3)
This literal dictation was a necessity in the Old Testament, for in it the very
Hebrew letters – every jot and tittle – have a Divine correspondence. Yet the
dictation was not as arbitrary as it sounds; for the Old Testament scribes were
first prepared and instructed before such Divine dictation was given to them.
They were Divinely educated for their roles and were thus enabled to
cooperate willingly, where necessary. The eyes of their spirits were opened and
the things about which they were later to write were portrayed before them.
But when they actually wrote their portion of the Word they were not in the
spirit but in the body. Then they heard interiorly the literal words, Divinely
dictated, which they wrote down, letter by letter; and this they did with joy, as
servants of the Lord.
Yet as scribes they were far different from Swedenborg. For these early
revelators did not understand the meaning of what they wrote – or rather
what was written through them. It is true that they had often seen in the
other world the things later written through them, yet they had no idea of
This is our faith: that
the Lord has made His
second coming through
Swedenborg, who was
His scribe; and that the
Writings are therefore
the Lord’s alone, and
not at all Swedenborg’s.
This belief is the
rock upon which our
church is built.
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