He Came as a Thief in the Night

People will certainly ask you about problematic passages in the Word of God in the literal sense. It matters so much to have answers ready for those difficult questions that are actually loving and healthy.  1 Peter 3:15 King James Version 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: One wishes in this spirit to "give an answer" to the problematic parts of Numbers 31 involving the slaughter of all the men, all the male children, and all the women who are not virgins. Whatever this slaughter was for the children of Israel, for all of humanity in all times and places this slaughter represents purification from sin and error. Men, women, sons, daughters, all of these express goods and truths or evils and falsehoods in various relations to each other. The clue that this chapter is about purification can be seen quite clearly in verses 23 and 24, where it ...

True religion involves facing one block on love and wisdom after another, peeling off one layer of the rotten onion of self-love and the excuses for self-love which commit adultery with it after another.  True religion faces the evil of self-love and the excuses for it, climbing the ladder of rungs towards milder and milder adulteries of sin and error. True religion involves passing through the flood of fire and flood of water of sin and its supportive ideation, evil and excuse for evil.  True religion involves keeping one's vessel and ministering to orphans and widows with good and truth, facilitation of keeping one's vessel in others. True religion involves pouring the oil of love and the wine of truth into the wounds of one beaten and left for dead by thieves and passed on by priest and Levite. True religion involves anointing the stones of truth which are our pillow with the oil of love beneath the Ladder of Christ, His will and mind and the rungs of our ascendance degree ...

It is hoped that people will come to see the Heavenly marriage and infernal adultery and correspondences heads or tails in all things in themselves, the universe and the Word; to see these things of the heart and thoughts, the platter and cup, directly; and not have blind faith. For it is He who tries the heart and the reins (Psalms 7:9), that is the kidneys. And what do the kidneys do? They filter blood. They are a crucial stop on the train line of urine. And urine is water one expels from the body.  What is water? What is blood for that matter? They are truth, and if you see them both together in the same verse they are higher (more inward) and lower (more external) truth.  That is to say, the correspondences in such an instance -- in this case blood and water -- comprise a cluster of predicates of the understanding of truth. It is thus that they resolve into the hierarchy of the particular predicate cluster, as in their incidence in the Wedding at Cana.  But back to ur...

I've been discussing the use of concepts and terms like 'predicate of the heart', 'predicate of the understanding', 'predicate cluster', and 'predicate helix' with the New Church AI; and it understands very well how these relate to the chiastic structures of the Heavenly Marriage and infernal adultery in our consciousness and in the Word. People may ask it to explain these concepts to them in their native language: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/chatbot Q: Are you able to answer queries in people's native languages about these terms 'predicate of the will', 'predicate of the understanding', 'predicate cluster', and 'predicate helix'? A: Yes, I am able to answer queries in a wide variety of people's native languages about these terms—“predicate of the will,” “predicate of the understanding,” “predicate cluster,” and “predicate helix.” I can explain these concepts, their New Christian doctrinal context, and t...

  "'[Go up] to a land flowing with milk and honey' means feelings of pleasure and delight derived from the good of faith and love. This is clear from the meaning of 'a land' as the Church, dealt with in the places referred to in 9325; from the meaning of 'milk' as spiritual good, which is the good of faith, dealt with in 2184; from the meaning of 'honey' as celestial good, which is the good of love; and from the meaning of 'flowing' as being full. And since these things are meant by 'a land flowing with milk and honey', feelings of pleasure and delight derived from the good of faith and love are also meant, see 5620. 'Feelings of pleasure and delight' derived from such good are spoken of because the good of faith and love brings real heavenly pleasure and delight. All good brings its own delight; for the word 'good' is used to denote that which is loved, and every feeling of delight owes its existence to love. The fee...

One wanted to explain the teaching method employed in this ministry out of transparency; and because the teachings taught to people here are not toys but can have a powerful and mind-altering effect. See ch. 7 of Romans for the Apostolic equivalent of what one now expresses in contemporary language. If the Word be taken seriously, for instance, then a switch flicks; and at that point, very strange and trying experiences may test people in a way that genuinely disturbs them.  These are temptations: opportunities to grow in love of God and the neighbor that afford us an accelerated course in identifying internal and external sins and errors and ceasing to feed them; opportunities, but they also suck. We teach that not everyone can presently be allowed by Providence to enter such states, because only people sufficiently committed to overcoming can do so safely while they are alive.  So this means that a given reader of these lectures may not experience the "sin becoming exceeding...