Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 115

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115. The Lord said to the angel of this church, "I am the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive," because those within the church that are in the spiritual affection of truth are here treated of. These are such as search out truths from the Word, and when they find them they rejoice in heart, solely because they are truths. Those also are here treated of who are in a merely natural affection of truth. These are such as do not search for truths, nor rejoice in them because they are truths, but they simply acquiesce in the doctrinals of their church, not caring whether they are true or false; these they learn with the memory only, confirming them also by the sense of the letter of the Word; and doing this solely for the sake of acquiring repute, honors, or gain. It is with such that the Lord is "dead," that is, rejected. The spiritual affection of truth, which is loving truth because it is truth, exists only with those who are conjoined to the Lord by the acknowledgment of His Divine in the Human, and by faith in it; since all the truth of heaven and all the truth of the church is from no other source than the Lord's Divine Human; for out of this proceeds Divine truth, which is called "the Spirit of Truth," or "the Holy Spirit." From this the angels of heaven have all their affection of truth and all their wisdom (that this is so, see in the work on Heaven and Hell n. 126-140, 265-275, 346-356). It is with these that the Lord is alive.


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