By showing how
everything in the
natural world has
a correspondence
with something in
the spiritual realm,
the Writings show
us how important
the natural world
and our experience
of it is in preparing
us for spiritual life.
Needless to say, the task of the serpent is
to seduce the mind, to create an impression
of wholeness which is really incomplete
and leads to self-service and principles of
gain, and ultimately, expulsions from the
Garden of Eden. Can it be that Genesis is
actually describing the modern world?
But here is the point: this is exactly the
picture that emerges from Swedenborg’s
exegesis. More than that, he always shows
how the spiritual is rooted in the natural,
that is, at the level of reality we are most
familiar with.
The Bible contains hidden layers of
meaning within its words, which relates in
a very precise way to our world today. The
Lord in His Providence foresaw the state of
things as they are today, and embedded in
the Word a very specific message for our
world today.
Ours is a world thoroughly absorbed in external concerns; and since we
are told that the Israelite nation was selected because of how external they
were, we might conclude that there is a message for us in their long-ago
history because our condition is the same as theirs was. The natural mind is
represented by Egypt, referred to more than 600 times in the Bible. Is it just
coincidence that the modern mind corresponds perfectly with everything that
is said about Egypt?
Egypt, we note, was the focus of the old New Church serial, Words for the
New Church:
The truths of the spiritual world rest upon the truths of the natural world;
and consequently, the truths of the church rest upon the truths of natural
science. The New Church will be able to convince all those who are willing
to be convinced, just in proportion as it brings its spiritual doctrines within
the radius of vision of men in this world, by preaching them in the first place
immediately out of the letter of the Word, and in the second place by bringing
down the doctrines into the knowledges of the natural world, and thus within
the sphere of natural light, and hence of natural science.
The modern Egyptians also use their knowledge of natural things in
declaring the independence of matter from spirit, and in denying man’s
immortality. Yet the fact that the modern scientists make such a perverted
use of the natural sciences, is no reason why the church should turn its back
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