Year of the Word 2024–2025
By Brian Kingslake
Adapted By Rev. Dr. Jim Lawrence
Swedenborg’s eyes were opened into the spiritual world so that he could tell us about life after death. But an even more important purpose was that he should reveal for us the spiritual sense of the Word of God. Most people recognize that the sacred scriptures are intensely symbolic and allegorical, but nobody seems to have had a clear understanding of a consecutive internal sense, giving life to the literal sense as a soul gives life to its body. Only after death do we become fully conscious of this deeper sense, but Swedenborg, with his unique insight into the spiritual world, was able to bring to us the basic structure of spiritual thought in the divine Word.
The inner sense of the literal text deals exclusively with spiritual concepts and is primarily intended for the angels in Heaven; thus, it is far beyond the capacity of any one of us on earth to comprehend it fully; but Swedenborg has demonstrated the existence of a spiritual sense and has given us a foretaste of it, which is like sunlight shining through clouds. The many volumes he wrote touching on the spiritual meaning of Genesis, Exodus, and Revelation, with thousands of cross-references to other parts of the Word, demonstrate the consistency of the inner sense of the Word throughout sacred scripture.
Not all books in our English Bible, however, encompass an inner spiritual sense placed within them. Some books of the standard Bible are more thoroughly human writings—good and useful, no doubt, but not actually part of what Swedenborg calls The Word (as a subset within the Bible). In Arcana Coelestia §10325, Swedenborg writes, “The books of the Word are all those that have an internal sense; and those that do not have an internal sense are not the Word. The Word in the Old Testament include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and in the New Testament include Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Revelation.”
Read the full issue of the September/October 2024 Messenger
Meet Brain Kingslake
Rev. Brian Kingslake (1907–1995) traveled the world, often vagabond style as young man, to experience many cultures before he settled down to training in theological school for ministry and ultimately serving churches on three continents and also for publishing several books ranging from children’s books to serious theology. This column has been adapted from his book, Inner Light: Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual Dimension.
