The Old Testament
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Psalm 45:3-4, 6
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Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One,
With Your glory and Your majesty.
And in Your honor mount,
And ride upon the Word of truth
And the meekness of righteousness….
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the Scepter of Your kingdom.
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Psalm 68:4, 32-33
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Sing to God, sing psalms to His name;
Extol Him who rides on the clouds….
Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth;
Oh sing praises to the Lord, Selah.
To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens,
Which were of old!
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Daniel 4:3
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How great are His signs,
And how mighty His wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And His dominion is from generation to generation.
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The New Testament
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Matthew 24:3
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Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to
Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things
be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end
of the age?”
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Revelation 4:1
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I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the
first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me,
saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which
must take place after this”
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Revelation 19:6-7,11-16
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And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as
the sound of many waters and as the sound of might thunderings,
saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him the glory…. Now
I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat
on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He
judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and
on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one
knew except Himself. He was clothed in a robe dipped in blood,
and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword…. And He
has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS
AND LORD OF LORDS
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The Heavenly Doctrines
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Signs in Heaven
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Apocalypse Revealed 532
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“And a great sign was seen in heaven” means
a revelation by the Lord concerning His New Church in the heavens
and on earth
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Apocalypse Explained 260:1,2
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And behold a door opened in heaven, symbolizes the
arcana of heaven revealed…[T]he sight is admitted into heaven
where the sight of the bodily eyes is dimmed, and at the same time
the sight of the spirit's eyes is enlightened. By this sight all
things seen by the prophets were seen.… [W]hatever is said
by the Lord and is perceived by angels, in coming down is changed
into representatives, and is so made to appear before the eyes
of angels in the ultimate heavens and before prophetic men when
the eyes of their spirit have been opened
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The Lord on a White HorseProvidence
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Apocalypse Explained 355:1,14
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[A]s “horse” means the intellect, particularly
in relation to the Word, it can be seen thence that the understanding
of truth from the Word, and its quality with the people of the
church, are here described by “horses.” In Revelation: “I
saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon
him was called the Word of God. And the armies that are in heaven
followed Him upon white horses” (Rev. 19:11-16). “A
white horse” evidently means the understanding of the Word,
likewise “the white horses” upon which those sat who
followed; for “He that sat upon” the white horse was
the Lord in relation to the Word…. The Lord is called the
Word, because the Word means Divine truth proceeding from Him
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Apocalypse Revealed 820
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“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white
horse” means the spiritual sense of the Word revealed by
the Lord, and the interior understanding of the Word disclosed
thereby; which is the coming of the Lord. By “heaven was
seen open” is meant a revelation from the Lord…. By “a
horse” is meant the understanding of the Word, and by “a
white horse” the interior understanding of the Word….
The reason that this is the coming of the Lord, is because it manifestly
appears by that sense that the Lord is the Word, and that the Word
treats of Him alone, and that He is the God of heaven and earth,
and that from Him alone the New Church exists.
The Lord appears manifestly in the spiritual sense of the Word.
It appears not only that He is the Word, that is, the Divine truth
itself, and that He is the inmost of the Word, and thence the all
of it; but also that He Himself is the one God, in whom is the
Trinity, and thus the only God of heaven and earth; and moreover
that He came into the world, that He might glorify His Human, that
is, make it Divine
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True Christian Religion 196:2
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[The Lord riding on a white horse as described in
Revelation 19:11-18] is a description of the Lord as the Word.
His eyes like a flame of fire mean the Divine wisdom of His Divine
love. The diadems on His head and the name which no one but He
knows mean the Divine truths in the Word which come from Him, and
that no one sees what the Word is like in its spiritual sense except
the Lord and those to whom He reveals it. A garment dyed in blood
means the natural sense of the Word, that is, the literal sense,
to which violence was done
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Apocalypse Revealed 299
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And by “the sword out of His mouth,” is
signified the Divine truth of the Word fighting against falsities
and evils…. To fight against falsities and evils is also
to fight against the hells…
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The Symbolism of Horses
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Arcana Coelestia 3217
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When angels’ discussion has to do with the
understanding part of the mind, horses appear in the world of spirits
below them, that is, in the communities which correspond to them.
The size, shape, color, and stance of the horses depends on the
ideas which the angels have concerning the understanding
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White Horse 3
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That a horse symbolizes the understanding, is from
no other source than from the representatives in the spiritual
world. In that world horses are frequently seen, and persons sitting
upon horses, and also chariots; and there everyone knows that they
symbolize intellectual and doctrinal things
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The Lord's Second Coming
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True Christian Religion 116:4
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[T]he whole of Revelation from beginning to end describes
the present state of the Christian church, and prophesies the Lord's
second coming, His conquest of the hells, the creation of a new
heaven of angels and then the establishment of a new church on
earth. All these things were there foretold, but they have not
been revealed before the present time. The reason is that Revelation,
like all the prophetical parts of the Word, was written purely
in correspondences, and if these had not been revealed by the Lord,
hardly anyone could have correctly understood a single verse
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see Coronis 0
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The New Christian Church is not being established
through miracles such as the Lord’s birth on earth, but through
revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word and teachings about
life after death, and these surpass all miracles
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True Christian Religion 776
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The Lord’s second coming, is not in person,
but in the Word, which is from Him and which He is
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True Christian Religion 779
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This, the Lord’s second coming, is taking place
by means of a man, to whom He has shown Himself in person, and
whom He has filled with His spirit, so that he may teach the doctrines
of the new church which come from the Lord through the Word. I
bear true witness that the Lord has shown Himself in the presence
of me, His servant, and sent me to perform this function….
Equally, I assert that from the first day of my calling I have
not received any instruction concerning the doctrines of that church
from any angel, but only from the Lord, while I was reading the
Word
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True Christian Religion 508:6
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“Enter into the mysteries of the Word, which
has been heretofore shut up; for the particular truths therein
are so many mirrors of the Lord”
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The Birth of the New Church
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True Christian Religion 787
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The New Church “is to worship one visible God
in whom is the invisible like the soul in the body”
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True Christian Religion 791
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After the completion of the book [True Christian
Religion], the Lord called together His twelve disciples, who had
followed Him in the world; and a day later He sent them all forth
throughout the spiritual world to preach the Gospel, that the Lord
God Jesus Christ is king, and His kingdom shall be for ever and
ever…. This happened on the nineteenth of June in the year
1770
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Coronis 0
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This New Church, truly Christian, which at this day
is being established by the Lord, will endure to eternity….
In this New Church there will be spiritual peace, glory, and internal
blessedness of life
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What is the Church?
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Arcana Coelestia 10761
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The term 'Church' is appropriate wherever the Lord
is acknowledged and the Word exists
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Apocalypse Explained 388
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It is believed that the church is where the Word
is, and where the Lord is known; but still the church consists
of those only who from the heart acknowledge the Divine of the
Lord, and who learn truths from the Lord by the Word and do them;
others do not constitute the church
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Doctrine
of the Sacred Scripture 79:1,8
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[T]he Church exists only where the Word is rightly
understood; and that the nature of the Church is according to the
understanding of the Word with those who are in the Church….
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An 