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John 1:1-5 - English Standard Version
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 5: 36-40
36 I have testimony weightier than that of John (the Baptist). For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Swedenborg Insight
Secrets of Heaven #3880
On our own we know nothing of heavenly and spiritual affairs, so we learn about them from divine revelation, which is the Word (Bible).
Swedenborg Insight
Sacred Scripture #3
In its essence, the Word (Bible) unites us with God and opens heaven, the Word fills us with good desires that come from love and fills our understanding with truths that lead to wisdom, provided we read it with God’s guidance and not just on our own. It fills our will with good desires that come from love and fills our understanding with truths that lead to wisdom. As a result, we gain life by means of the Word.
Swedenborg Insight
Sacred Scripture #39
We can tell from this that in its literal meaning the Word (Bible) is really the Word. There is spirit and life within; the spiritual meaning is its spirit and the heavenly meaning is its life.
C.S. Lewis - (Considered on the greatest Christian writers of the 20th Century)
The human qualities of the raw materials show through. Naivety, error, contradiction, even (as in the cursing Psalms) wickedness are not removed. The total result is not ‘the Word of God’ in the sense that every passage, in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God; and we (under grace, with attention to tradition and to interpreters wiser than ourselves, and with the use of such intelligence and learning as we may have) receive that word from it not by using it as an encyclopedia or an encyclical but by steeping ourselves in its tone or temper and so learning its overall message.
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