Notes on the Development of Doctrine in the Church

Notes on the Development of Doctrine in the Church
by
Rt. Rev. Philip N. Odhner

There are certain general laws given in the Third Testament in relation to the development of Doctrine in the Church. These laws should be known and carefully considered in connection with the history of Doctrine in the New Church. These laws are all closely related with one another.

 1. That in the beginning of any Church the word is at first closed as to its internal things,and only opened later:

 Arcana Coelestia 3769 “And a great stone was on the mouth of the well.’ That this signifies that it was closed, namely, the Word, can be evident without unfolding. The Word is said to be closed when it is understood only as to the sense of the letter, and all that which is there is taken for what is doctrinal. And it is still more closed when those things which favor the cupidities of the love of self and the world are acknowledged for doctrinals, for these especially roll a great stone over the mouth of the well, that is, close the Word. And then it is as if they do not know, nor will to know that there is an interior sense in the Word, when nevertheless they can know this from many places where the sense of the letter is unfolded as to the interior sense.”

 Arcana Coelestia 3773   “In the beginning,when any Church is being instaurated, then first the Word is closed to them, but then it is opened, the Lord so providing, and then they learn that all doctrine is founded on these two commandments,that the Lord must be loved above all things and the neighbor as themselves. When these two precepts are for an end, then the Word is opened, for all the Law and all the Prophets, that is, the whole Word, so depend on these that all things are therefrom and all things refer themselves to them. And because they are then in the beginnings of the true and good, they are illustrated in the single things which they see in the Word.”

 That this law applies to the Third Testament and to the New Church is evident from the fact that through most of its history the Church has taken its Word for its doctrine, and that it has not acknowledged that everything in -its Word refers to love into the Lord and love toward the neighbor.

 2. That a new revelation of the Word has been given only when the Church has been so vastated that no good is left with men, and when the Word cannot be infernally acknowledged and received,and so cannot be profaned.

 Arcana Coelestia 3398 “It is most especially provided by the Lord that the Divine Good and True may not be profaned. And it is provided especially through this, that a man who is such that he cannot otherwise than profane is withheld as far as possible from the acknowledgement and faith of the true and good. . . . This also was the cause why the Lord did not come into the world and reveal the internal things of the Word until there was no good remaining with them, not even natural good, for they could then no longer receive any truth even to internal acknowledgement, (for good is that which receives), thus they could not profane it. … It is for the same reason that now the arcana of the internal sense of the Word are revealed, because at this day there is scarcely any faith, because not any charity, thus because it is the consummation of the age; and when this is the case, then they can be revealed without the danger of profanation, because they are not interiorly acknowledged.”

 This number has been chosen from many giving this law because it specifically speaks of the reception of the Third Testament in the New Church.

 It may be supposed by some that the condition here described applies to those outside of the Church, and not to those who are in the Church,and that anyone who receives the Third Testament must be exempt from this danger of profanation.But it can be clear to anyone who reflects on the matter that this number is speaking of an internal acknowledgement of the truths of the Word, and not of an external acknowledgement and reception of them. The Word is of such a nature that it can be externally received without the danger of profanation. and this external reception can prepare the way for an internal reception of it. If this were not the case it would make no sense to say that the Lord waits to give the Word until an internal acknowledgement of it is no longer possible.

 3. That the Word must be received externally,before it can be received internally.

 Arcana Coelestia 3857 “The Lord in the Word spoke according to the grasp of man and according to his appearances. The literal sense of the Word is such; but still it is such that it has the internal sense in itself, in which are interior trues’., Thence now it is that of Leah it is said that Jehovah opened her womb, and that Rachel was barren. For by Leah is represented the affection of the exterior true and by Rachel the affection of the interior true,as said. But it was provided by the Lord, because exterior trues are the first trues which man learns,that through them he can be introduced into interior trues; and this is what is signified by that at last God remembered Rachel, and hearkened to her and opened her womb. (Gen. 30:22)

 These things can be evident from the Churches which were from ancient time, and from their doctrinals, that namely, their doctrinals were formed from external trues; as from the Ancient Church which was after the flood: its doctrinals for the most part were external representatives and significatives, in which internal trues had been stored up.The greatest part of them were in holy worship when in externals. If anyone in the beginning had told them that those representatives and signincatives were not the essentials of Divine worship, but the celestial and spiritual things which they were representing and signifying, they would have rejected it altogether, and thus there would have been no Church. Still more the Judaic Church, if anyone had said to them that rituals have their holy from the Divine things of the Lord which are in them,they would not at all have acknowledged it Such also was man when the Lord came into the world,and still more corporeal, and those in the Church above the rest. This is clear from the disciples themselves who were continually with the Lord,and heard so many things about His Kingdom, and still nevertheless they could not yet perceive interior trues. … If it had been said to them that by the disciples they were not meant, but all who are in the good of love and of faith,.. . they would have rejected the Lord and would have gone each one to his own business, leaving the Lord. That the Lord so spoke to them was in order mat they might receive, and through those things be introduced into internal trues; for in those external things which the Lord spoke, internal things lay stored up, which open in time; and when they are open, those external things are dissipated, and serve only for objects of thinking about internal things.”

 Men are introduced first into an external understanding of the Word so that by a life according to the external trues, their evils may be so far removed that they can receive interior trues without the danger of profanation. This is true of each man of the Church, and of the Church as a whole.

 4. That the above laws are involved in what is said about Enoch in Genesis 5:24, “that he was not; for God took him,” and about the Man-Child the Apocalypse 12:5, that he was “caught up to God and His throne.”

 Apocalypse Explained  670 “At the end of the Church, when there is no faith because no charily, the interior things of the Word are manifested which will serve the new Church for doctrine and for life. This was done by the Lord Himself when the end of the Jewish Church was at hand.The Lord then came into the world and opened the interior things of the Word, especially concerning Himself, love into Hum and love toward the neighbor, and faith into Him, which things formerly lay stored up in the interiors of the Word, because in its representatives, and therefrom in the single things of the Church and of worship. Therefore those trues, which the Lord disclosed were interior trues and in themselves spiritual, which afterwards served the new Church for doctrine and life… .But still they were not immediately received, but only after a noteworthy lapse of time …  because they could not be received before all things in the spiritual world had been reduced into order; for the spiritual world is conjoined to the natural world with men; wherefore unless that world had first been reduced into order, the goods of love and trues of doctrine could not be understood or perceived by men in the natural world. … A similar thing was done when the Moat Ancient Church came to its end. The representatives of celestial things which were with the Most Ancients were then by those called Enoch collected into one and reserved for the use of the new Church after the flood. . . . With these things it was likewise done,namely, that they were separated from the evil by being taken into heaven and thus guarded, and this even till the old Church had come to its last, and when a new Church was to be instaurated. . . .Similarly it was done at this day. This Church,which is called Christian, at this day has come to its end; wherefore now the arcana of Heaven and of the Church have been revealed by the Lord to serve a new Church which is meant by Nova Heirosolyma in the Apocalypse, for doctrine and for life.This doctrine also has been taken into Heaven lest it should be harmed by the evil before the instauration of a new Church. This therefore is what is signified by these things about the two witnesses,that they ascended into Heaven, and also by the words of the following chapter where it is treated of the woman about to bring forth a child before whom stood the dragon, that the boy was caught up to God and His throne.”

 Apocalypse Explained 728 “”And her child was caught up to God and His Throne” signifies protection of the Doctrine by the Lord, because it is for the New Church. This is evident from the signification of the Child or Male Child’ . . . that it is Doctrine out of the Word, and indeed the doctrine of the true, that is, the doctrine of love into the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, and finally of faith. . . . And as that doctrine will be the doctrine of .the Church which is called Nova Hierosolyma, protection is said, because for the New Church. That it was caught up to the Lord and to Heaven is because that doctrine is from the Lord, and Heaven is in that doctrine.
A similar thing as is here said of the Child born from a woman, that it was caught up to God,is said of Enoch son of Jared, but in these words,’Enoch walked with God and was no more, because God took him.’…. Because the Lord foresaw that that spiritual perception (which was with the Most Ancients) would perish with their posterity, and with that perception the cognition of correspondences through which there was conjunction of the human race with heaven, therefore the Lord provided that certain ones who lived with the Most Ancients should gather into one the correspondences and bring them into a codex. These were they who are meant by Enoch, and that codex is what is signified. The codex, because it was to serve the Churches about to come, which were to be instaurated by the Lord after the Hood, for the knowledge and cognition of spiritual things in natural things,was conserved by the Lord into their use, and also guarded lest the ultimate posterity of the Most Ancient Church, which was evil, should bring harm to that codex.”

 It is evident that the books of the Third Testament were not caught up to Heaven, nor the codex made by the Church Enoch. What was caught up to Heaven, or reserved for the use of the coming Church, was the doctrine, the internal sense, the interior trues, the real meaning of the Third Testament, in which all things refer to the Lord, and to the loves from Him which make Heaven and the Church.

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 From these things it is clear that it was of the Divine order that the New Church should in the beginning, and for a long time, regard the Third Testament as its doctrine, without realizing that it contained an internal sense in which are the real things of Heaven for the Church. And it was also of order that when the Church had lived according to the external sense of the Third Testament, the acknowledgement of its internal sense should be given to it, and that the Church should then see that its conjunction with the Lord is in the understanding of those interior trues and in a life according to them. In the measure that the Church will devote itself to the Word, and purify its life, the Doctrine will come down from Heaven, and the New Church, the Nova Hierosolyma, will come into existence, the Bride and Wife of the Lord.