The Old Testament
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| Exodus 19:8 |
All that the Lord has spoken we will do.
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| Deuteronomy 8:3 |
Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
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| Deuteronomy 29:29 |
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
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| Isaiah 55:10-11 |
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth....
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| Psalm 119:50 |
Your word has given me life.
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| Isaiah 40:8 |
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
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The New Testament
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| Matthew 13:3-9 |
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
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| Mark 4:26-29 |
"The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
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| John 3:27 |
"A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven."
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| John 15:5 |
"He who abides in Me and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
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| Luke 11:28 |
"Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it."
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The Heavenly Doctrines
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The Sower
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| Arcana Coelestia 29:2 |
The Lord is He who sows, the "seed" is His Word, and the "earth" is a person.
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| Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 78 |
It is through the Word that the Lord is present with a person and conjoined with him, for the Lord is the Word, and as it were speaks with the person in it.
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| Arcana Coelestia 6516:3 |
When the Word is read, the Lord comes in and teaches.
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| Arcana Coelestia 3310:2 |
The "seed" is the Word of the Lord, thus truth, which is said to be of faith, and the "good ground" is the good which is of charity, is evident, for it is the good in a person that receives the Word.
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| Doctrine of Life 90 |
It is the truth that is meant by the "seed in the field," of which the Lord said: "A sower went forth to sow..." Here the "sower" is the Lord, and the "seed" is His Word, thus the truth.
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| De Verbo 13:2 |
The Lord "instructs everyone by means of the Word, and He instructs a person to the degree that the person receives goodness from the Lord in his will, which in turn depends on the degree to which he abstains from evils because they are sins."
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| see De Verbo 2 |
The life that flows in from the Lord through the Word is the light of truth into our minds and the love of good into our will.
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| Arcana Coelestia 1461 |
Knowledges from the Word are such that they are open from the Lord Himself; for the Word itself is from the Lord through heaven, and the Lord's life is in all things of the Word.
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| Arcana Coelestia 3310:2 |
The "seed" is the Word of the Lord, thus truth, which is said to be of faith, and the "good ground" is the good which is of charity, is evident, for it is the good in a person that receives the Word.
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| Arcana Coelestia 10236:4 |
The "world cannot enter into heaven, but heaven can enter into the world, which comes to pass when the Lord inflows through heaven with a person, and enlightens him, teaches him, and leads him, by means of the Word."
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| Divine Providence 2:2 |
Where the Word is read with reverence and the Lord is worshiped from the Word, the Lord is present together with heaven. This is because the Lord is the Word, and the Word is Divine Truth which constitutes heaven.
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The Hardened Path
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| Arcana Coelestia 3310:2 |
The "hard way" is falsity.
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| Doctrine of Life 90 |
The "seed upon the way" exists with those who do not care for the truth.
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| Arcana Coelestia 5096 |
Those who subscribe heavily to falsity do not have any freedom even to see what is true, let alone acknowledge it and believe it. That conviction is so powerful in them that it removes all freedom to think anything different. This is primarily so when such falsity is the product of evil, that is, when evil causes them to be convinced of it. These are the ones who are meant in the Lord's parable in Matthew: "Other seeds fell on the hard path, and the birds came and devoured them" (Matt. 13:4). 'Seeds' means Divine truths, 'hard rock' conviction, and 'birds' false assumptions.
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Stony Places
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| Doctrine of Life 90 |
The "seed upon stony places" exists with those who do care for the truth, but not for its own sake, thus not interiorly.
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| Arcana Coelestia 3310:2 |
A "stony place" is truth that has no root in good.
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| De Verbo 12 |
Every person who possesses a spiritual affection for truth, that is, who loves real truth because it is true, is enlightened by the Lord when he reads the Word. Not so, however, one who reads the Word solely out of a natural affection for truth, which is called curiosity. Such a person sees only what accords with his love, or with his philosophic opinions, either that he has conceived for himself, or that he has adopted from others through hearing and reading.
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Thorns
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| Arcana Coelestia 3310:2 |
The "thorns" are evils.
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| Doctrine of Life 90 |
The "seed in the midst of thorns" exists with those who are strongly attracted to evil.
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| Divine Providence 278:3 |
Those who love the world above all things, admit no truth that would lead them away from any falsity of their religion. They reject the truth as soon as they hear it, and if they listen to it they stifle it. These are they who are meant by the seed which fell among thorns...They hear the Word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, so that it becomes unfruitful.
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| Arcana Coelestia 9382:2 |
Everyone receives enlightenment and instruction from the Word according to his affection for truth and degree of desire for it, and according to his ability to receive it.... [T]hose are blinded who are ruled by worldly loves, since these loves receive and like sponges soak up falsities....
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Good Ground
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| Doctrine of Life 90 |
But the "seed in good ground" exists with those who love the truths that are in the Word from the Lord, and do them from Him, thus who bear fruit.... The truth of the Word cannot take root in those who do not care for the truth, nor in those who love the truth outwardly and not inwardly, nor in those who are strongly attracted to evil, but in those in whom these attractions to evil have been dispersed by the Lord. In these the "seed"-that is, the truth-takes root in their spiritual mind.
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| Arcana Coelestia 9382:3 |
When "a person possessing a heavenly love reads it, the Word links him to heaven and through heaven to the Lord."
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| Arcana Coelestia 9382:2 |
Everyone receives enlightenment and instruction from the Word according to his affection for truth and degree of desire for it, and according to his ability to receive it....[T]hose are enlightened who are governed by heavenly loves; for heavenly loves receive and like sponges soak up heaven's truths, and are also of their own accord joined to them in the manner of soul and body.
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| Doctrine of Life 2 |
That religion is of the life and that the life of religion is to do that which is good is seen by everyone who reads the Word, and is acknowledged by him while he is reading it.
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| Apocalypse Explained 1183 |
He leads those who love truths, and who will them from Himself. Such are enlightened when they read the Word; for the Lord is in the Word and speaks with everyone according to his apprehension.
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| Arcana Coelestia 10551:2 |
But anyone at all who supposes that he has enlightenment is mistaken if he does not love to know truth for its own sake and for the sake of leading a good life, thus if he does not love Divine Truth for life's sake. For leading a life in keeping with Divine Truths derived from the Word constitutes loving the Lord; and from the Lord, when He is loved, springs all enlightenment.
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The Lord Acts with Secrecy to Maintain Our Freedom
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| Apocalypse Explained 864 |
[T]he Lord so operates with a person that a person may follow Him as if of himself; thus does the Lord flow into a person's freedom...For everything enters into the person and becomes as if it were his own that person receives in freedom, that is, as if of himself, whether it be what he thinks and speaks or what he wills and does as if of himself. And yet a person ought to believe, as the matter really is in itself, that he does these things not from himself but from the Lord...This is meant by what the Lord taught in Mark (4:26,27): "So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed upon the earth, and should then sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how."
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| Arcana Coelestia 9587 |
The Lord keeps a person in the freedom of thinking; and insofar as outward bonds, which are the fear of the law and for life, and the fear of the loss of reputation, of honor, and of gain, do not hinder, He keeps him in the freedom of doing. But through freedom, He bends him away from evil; and, through Freedom, He bends him to good; leading him so gently and silently that the person knows no otherwise than that everything proceeds from himself. Thus the Lord, in freedom, inseminates and implants good in the very life of the person, which good remains to eternity. This the Lord teaches in Mark: "So is the Kingdom of God, as a man who casteth seed into the earth; the seed germinateth and groweth, while he knoweth not. The earth beareth fruit of its own accord" (Mark 4:26-28). "The kingdom of God" denotes heaven with a person, thus the good of love and the truth of faith.
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| Apocalypse Explained 911:17 |
The "seed" signifies the Divine truth, "to cast seed into the earth" signifies the work of a person....The rest signifies the Lord's work; and the "harvest" the implantation of the church in particular and in general. For it is to be known, that, although the Lord works all things, and a person nothing from self, yet He wills that a person should work as if from self in all that comes to his perception. For without a person's cooperation as if from self there can be no reception of truth and good, thus no implantation and regeneration. For to will is the Lord's gift to people; and because the appearance to a person is that this is from self, He gives him to will as if from self.
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| Arcana Coelestia 5212:4 |
In Mark the comparison with the blade, the ear, and the corn, involves the rebirth of a person by means of memory-knowledges, truths of faith, and goods of charity...The "kingdom of God," which is compared to the blade, the ear, and the corn, is heaven in a person through regeneration.
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| Apocalypse Explained 1153:6,9 |
The Divine providence moves so secretly that scarcely a trace of it is seen, although it acts upon the most minute things of a person's thought and will, which regard his eternal state...How all these things flow in and flow through, a person knows nothing; and yet he lives if only he knows what he needs to do and does it. But the ways by which the Lord leads a person are far more complicated and inexplicable, both those by which the Lord leads a person through the societies of hell and away from them, and also those by which he leads him through the societies of heaven and interiorly into them. This, therefore, is what is meant by..."the seed springeth up and groweth up, the man knoweth not how" (Mark 4:27). Moreover, of what consequence is it for a person to know how seed grows up, provided he knows how to plow and harrow the land, to sow the seed, and when he reaps his harvest to bless God?
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