The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
THE BIBLE AS REVELATION.
1t Has a Divine Meaning Within the
Literal story.

God He is able to give revelation to men.
| Let those who do not believe the Bible TO
| be Gods own self-revealed truth search
| their hearts deeply enough, if they are able,
| and they will find that neither do they be-
| lieve in the existence of God. For such no
explanation would suffice. They are not
seeking light. One doubt held very close to
| the eye will shut out a world of truth.
But for those who believe the heavenly
Father can speak to man, and has done so,
and who wish to understand how it is ac-
complished, the manner has been explained.
First, however, word as to the person
and appearance of God. There is and can
be but one God. This every sane man will
admit. Who, then, is He? Our Lord Jesus
| Christ; For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
| of the godhead bodily" (Col. ii, 80 The
one only God took on Himself the humanity
| which He had created; He cast out from
| it all that was impure and finite, and made
| it divine body in which to eternity He
dwells as mans soul dwells in his body;
and from this divine human body He is able
to reach and uplift men in a way that
was impossible before His incarnation. How
is God the Lord seen by angels of heaven?
AS man like themselves seated on a
throne in their midst? No. He is seen as
heads as the source of all their light. He
is sometimes seen In the midst of this
solar radiance in the human form, but eX-
cept at times Of special nearness, only the
glory emanating from Him is seen as the
Sun of the spiritual world The
Lord God is a SUM-" Cps. lxxxiv..
III THY sun shall no more go down. for
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light. :,
Us TX, 2O) And the city had no need Of
the sun, for the glory of God did tighten it
and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Rev.
TnE n In 10 10
saw the Sun of the spiritual world and an
angel standing in it. (Rev. xix, I'D This
for an angel could no more live in the spirit
ual Sun than a man could in the natural
sun. 1 mention this before speaking of
how revelation is given, because belief in
the possibility of revelation involves belief
in God as an intelligent personal being. Yet,
thought Of Him as man like other men,
as a king surrounded by the angels, is so
unworthy conception of the Infinite that
it IS little wonder some have been driven
to think of God as only a mighty, lntangi-
BILE power. This thought is, however, more
erroneous than the other. 1t is more ra-
tionai to pray to steam engine than to
formless power. That which has neither
body, parts nor passions can neither know
nor think nor do. 1t is nothing except 1t
whose love and wisdom it is an expression.
But if God is a divine Man and yet is
so distinct from all finite beings that in
their highest estate His glory, far removed,
shines down upon them like sunshine, then
it can be understood how from Himself in
the center of His universe He sees and or
in it's little universe, the body accomplishes
what it wills. God alone is Life. Man is.
so created as to be capable of receiving life
and using it as though it We're his own;
just as the body receives it's life from the
soul and yet appears to live of itself. The
angel or devil an inmost soul. into which
His life can flow and be received. 1t is
because of this that He can give revela
ton. For through that Utmost soul into
which His life constantly flows, He can so
control man or angel that he shall be for
the time only the mouthpiece of the Divine.
The message will then be given indeed in
the language known to the angel or prophet,
will be spoken with his mouth, will take it's
tones from his voice, its outward form from
his mind, SO that to all outward appearance
1t is merely human, yet inwardly it is the
Lords, and within it's human covering it
mind from whence it comes. That the
Lord did SO control and speak through>an-
gels may be shown by many places in the
Bible, but one will be sufficient. In the
twenty-seccnd chapter of Revocation, the
last chapter of the Book, we read that John
fell at the feet of his angel guide to worship
for | am thy fellow-servant and of thy
,prethren the prophets, and OF them which
GesP the t SAYINGS Of te1 this b00kIorShp
same angel, who had declared he was a
fellow-servant of John and was still bound
by the sayings of this book exclaims.
Behold. come quickly. am Alpha and
Omega. the beginning and the end the first
and the last" There is no other explana-
ton of this but that he spoke in the first
God.
II. may be objected that much of the
Bible does not appear to be direct reve-
lat1on from God 1t is largely COM
posed of history. 1t must be conceded that
mere history is not divine revelation What
is given from the eternal God to His i'm
mortal children can never fall below the
dignity of the spiritual and eternal welfare
or men. preserving ancient records merely
as an account of what the Lord has done
in the past would not constitute an inspired
or divine book. But might it not be that
this history, formed under His guiding hand
and then by His own spirit recalled or die
tated to sacred scribe, is more than his
Chigdran III noe t frer, denverenGe OF the
represent, even as to its minute particulars,
our deliverance from the bondage of sin?-
the plaques represent the successive steps
of judgment on the evil either in the world
OF judgment or in our own minds as we
see and separate ourselves from the falsi-
ties we have called truths and the sins we
have been committing? May not the will
derness journey represent our earthly life
and the Promised Land heaven? If so, it
is not the history which makes this narra-
tive holy. 1t is a meaning that is within
the history. And the whole. account be-
sides being fact, is also symbol, and no man
but the Lord alone could have so written
it that it should perfectly symbolic the
salvation and regeneration of a human soul.
Do we not find in David a recognition that
there was such meaning in the exodus and
the forty years wanderings? He says
psalms xviii, p: Il will open my mouth
in parable 1 will utter dark sayings of
Old and then proceeds to give an histori-
cal account of the experiences of Israel in
the wilderness.
If this history contains so much divine
wisdom, be sure that other Bible history
does also. Indeed, Paul says that the his
tory of Abraham and his two sons is IAN
allegoryp q Gal. iv, "a and that the Jew
iSh worship was to serve as a shadow and
example of heavenly things and as the pat
tern of things in the heavens-(Heb. xiii,
23) This is the manner in which the Word
of God is uniformly written. Within the
letter, which appears like any human COM
position. it contains inner meaning in
which God Himself speaks directly to the
soul with words of reproof, instruction
guidance Even of our Lord, when here in
the flesh. it is said: without a parable
spake He not unto them mark xiii, 34),
and the reason follOwS-it is that those who
would but abuse the truth shall not find it,
lest by such abuse they sink themselves to
greater depths of blasphemy and sin.
1t is good for a great many, even of those
who are professed Christians, to find at the
present day, no divinity in the Word of
God. But to all who love the Lord and
wait for HIS appearing l would say that He
has come again and revealed the true ma
ture of His Word. He has shown Himself
within every line and word of it. He has
revealed what that inner meaning of the
Bible is as the angels read it when time and
space and history drop away and they see
only the history of the spiritual life of man
and of the divine life over all and in ALL
Forever, 0 Lord. Thy Word is established
in the heavens Psalms cXix, So Let none
who love the Word ever doubt its inspira-
ton. In the writings given through Eman-
uel Swedenborg the Lord has fully met and
answered. century before 1t was needed,
all the objections that have been or will
be made by those who search the Scrip
20 R,1I