Jesus and the internal meaning to the Bible

The New Church -- like Jesus Himself -- teaches that the Bible has not just an external meaning but also an internal one, and that the Bible -- the scroll only the Lamb was worthy to open in Revelation -- is written "inside and on the back" (Luke 24:27, Revelation 5:1). The Bible itself teaches this doctrine in multiple places, both in the Old Testament and in the New. 

Jesus, for instance, says, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables" (Mark 4:10-11). This same doctrine appears in the Old Testament in Nehemiah 8:8, where "they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading".

Here "the book, in the Law of God" refers to the words you read directly in the Bible's pages, and the "sense" refers to the inner meaning of those words. This same doctrine appears elsewhere in the New Testament in Revelation 5:1 as mentioned above, where there is "a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals".

Here the words you literally read on the Bible's pages are the "written inside" part; and here the inner meaning of those words is the "on the back" part, with the "7 seals" being such as only Jesus -- whom we approach personally and alone -- can unlock for us, He alone being worthy to open the book in Revelation Ch. 5.

For instance, in the Old Testament there is a special incident during the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness when these were plagued by poisonous snakes. So, being thus plagued, they requested a remedy; and God told Moses to put a bronze serpent (whose name is Nehushtan) on a pole, that whoever gazed on it might be safe from the poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:8).

So far so good. But this is only the outer meaning of that incident. Jesus has helpfully and explicitly identified both that the bronze serpent has an inner meaning and also what it is, for in John 3:14 we read, that "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up".

In other words, this bronze serpent -- outwardly to cure snake bites -- means inwardly the crucifixion of our Lord. That is why those who add or remove a word from Revelation (and by extension the Word generally) are under a curse, the curse referred to in Revelation 22:19.

For if you were to remove the bronze serpent from the Old Testament, you would without realising it have been removing the crucifixion of the Lord from the Bible! And the same goes for many another choice of words which you might imagine could go harmlessly lost in the shuffle. (Hence the vehemence of the warning not to do it.)

 With the New Church in particular, there is not just unlocked the parable of the sower, Nehushtan and other images; but also unlocked are countless others, without 7 lines missing; without doubt as to what actual interpretations and practices would have been followed in consideration of a given ancient sect or denomination called Gnostic today; without the usual black clouds, but in their place an interpretative system of great clarity and immediate applicability.