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underlying Divine and heavenly melody.
After having worked my way seriatim through the whole of the text
twice, and having revisited selected portions a myriad other times, I have
been always delighted anew by what I have discovered there. I have always reexperienced that same underlying harmony that exists in all Divine teaching,
and have rejoiced in those powerful illustrative, down-to-earth, and practical
confirmatory teachings that seem to especially characterize this work.
Also, and very importantly for me, while reading and reflecting on the
teachings in this work, I have experienced the same sense inside of me of the
Lord speaking to me as I have experienced while contemplating teachings
elsewhere in the Word of the Second Advent.
Obviously, no one is required to accept this testimony as binding on
themselves. All I would urge is that anyone considering the character of the
text of The Spiritual Diary/Spiritual Experiences accept the Lord’s challenge, as
presented in a passage such as Apocalypse Explained 190 – a challenge to those
who are in a genuine spiritual affection of truth – and, having done so, then
read and study the whole of the text for themselves with as open a mind as
they can muster to the possibility that this text just may be Divine revelation.
See what happens, and then, if one feels the urge, let us correspond in
person or by email. I am only too aware of the futility of trying to convince
someone that The Spiritual Diary/Spiritual Experiences is a part of Divine
revelation when they have not yet read and studied it enough for themselves
to form a valid opinion on the matter.
The same holds true for a work such as Apocalypse Explained. If one has
not read and studied it, how can they be staggered by its Divine and heavenly
beauty – its precious gems of Divine good and truth covering the spiritual
ground as far as the mental eye can see! As the old saying goes: “The proof of
the pudding is in the eating.”
While advancing my testimony regarding The Spiritual Diary/Spiritual
Experiences, I am well aware that the format appears problematic to some.
For the most part we have in this text a long succession of recorded, journal
type spiritual experiences, together with seemingly unconnected or loosely
connected little doctrinal presentations. The text, for the most part, unlike
some other Divine works, is not a seriatim explanation of the internal content
of some portion of Scripture, or a tightly organized, systematic treatment of
the doctrine that elsewhere has been given to us by the Lord out of heaven.
Still, I would assert, as confirmed by a passage such as True Christian Religion
779, quoted above, that its contents were communicated to Swedenborg while
he read the Word, and as a result, that he enjoyed that marvelous protection
of his state of mind by the Lord while he observed spiritual phenomena and
later was led to record them in a written text. I recall how some years ago the
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