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This discussion group is for people who know from experience that the revelation given through Emanuel Swedenborg is the Lord's Word, that it contains within it an internal spiritual and heavenly meaning, which is the genuine understanding of the Word, and that those who love truth for the sake of living a good life may be enlightened by the Lord and brought into that genuine understanding.
A classic expression of this idea was published in the 1930s in the Dutch magazine "De Hemelsche Leer," as follows:
1. The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. The 'Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture' must be applied to the three Testaments alike.
2. The Latin Word without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read the Latin Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the Latin Word, are in darkness as to all truth (cf. SS 50-61).
3. The genuine Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin, but not out of rational origin. The Lord is that Doctrine itself (cf. AC 2496, 2497, 2510, 2516, 2533, 2859; AE 19).
The word "Lucerna," used as the name of this discussion group, means "lamp" and is used in the _Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture_ to represent true Doctrine shedding light on the Word:
57. III. That genuine truth, which will be of doctrine, does not appear in the sense of the letter of the Word to others than those who are in illustration from the Lord. [...]
59. With these people the first thing is, that out of the Word's literal sense they procure for themselves Doctrine, thus they light for themselves a lamp, in order to progress further; moreover, after the Doctrine has been procured, and a lamp thus lit, out of that they see the Word. But those who do not procure Doctrine for themselves, first inquire whether the Doctrine given by others, and received by the general gathering, agrees with the Word. To those things that agree, they consent, and with those that do not agree, they dissent. Thus it becomes, for them, their own Doctrine, and through Doctrine becomes their faith. But this happens only with those who, undistracted by the business of the world, can see: these, if they love truths because they are true, and make them of use for life, are in illustration from the Lord. The rest, who are in some life according to truths, can learn from them.
Let us remember that a lamp in our minds is not the mere words of our doctrinal ideas, nor is it a method of interpretation that turns one set
of words into another. Rather it is a change in us, a matter of life, which allows the light of heaven to brighten the ideas and concerns of earthly minds.
To see the collection of prior postings to the list,
visit the lucerna
Archives.
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