Thursday, 23 April 2009

Exodus 26:33 Holy place and the most Holy





33 And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. -Exodus 26:33 King James Version (KJV)


I believe the temporary tent or tabernacle for the arc of the testimony or the Temple can represent either our bodies, with their secret inner Doorways known as chakras, or the Kingdoms of Heaven. The vail in the Temple between the holy place and the most holy suggests to me a division between the Kingdoms of Heaven.

According to the Mormon Church there are three Kingdoms of Heaven; the Celestial, which is the highest, the Terrestrial and the Telestial which is the lowest.

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?... 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead... -1 Corinthians 15:35-42 Bible, King James Version 


Emanuel Swedenborg calls the third highest Kingdom of Heaven the Celestial Kingdom, the second the Spiritual Kingdom and the first the Natural Kingdom. Considering the Light of Heaven comes from the Lord or Masters in Heaven then you may understand why Swedenborg teaches us: 117. …The sun of heaven is the Lord; the light there is the Divine truth and the heat the Divine good that go forth from the Lord as a sun. From this origin are all things that spring forth and are seen in the heavens. In heaven the Lord is seen as a sun, for the reason that He is Divine love, from which all spiritual things, and by means of the sun of the world all natural things, have their existence. That love is what shines as a sun. 118. That the Lord is actually seen in heaven as a sun I have not only been told by angels, but it has occasionally been granted me to see it. …The Lord is seen as a sun, …not directly overhead, …but before the faces of the angels at a middle height…Those that receive Him with the good of love see Him as a sun, fiery and flaming, in accordance with their reception of Him; these are in His celestial kingdom; while those that receive Him with the good of faith see Him as a moon, white and brilliant in accordance with their reception of Him, and these are in His spiritual kingdom. This is so because good of love corresponds to fire; therefore in the spiritual sense fire is love. 121. When, however, the Lord appears in heaven, which often occurs, He does not appear encompassed with a sun, but in the form of an angel, yet distinguished from angels by the Divine shining through from His face. 123. …All in the heavens are turned constantly to Him those in the celestial kingdom to Him as a sun and those in the spiritual kingdom to Him as a moon. …All in the hells are in love of self and the world. …All in the other life look towards what rules in their interiors, thus to their loves… [Footnotes to Chapter 14: “Fire” in the Word signifies love, both in a good sense and in a bad sense. Holy or heavenly fire signifies the Divine Love. Infernal fire signifies love of self and of the world and every lust of those loves. Love is the fire of life and life itself is really from it. …The hells are at a distance from the heavens because they cannot bear the presence of Divine love from the Lord. For this reason the hells are very far away from the heavens, and this is the “great gulf.” The Lord is the common center to which all things of heaven turn.] (Chapter 14, Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen by Emanuel Swedenborg)



Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com

700.
...the Tent of meeting represented the three heavens, its court the lowest or first heaven; the tent itself as far as the veil, wherein were the tables for the loaves, the altar of incense, and the lampstand, represented the middle or second heaven; and the ark, which was within the veil, upon which was the mercy-seat with the cherubim, represented the inmost or third heaven [Celestial]... (That the tent or tabernacle represented the form of heaven, and, together with the court, represented the three heavens, and that the holy of holies, which was the inmost, where the ark was, within which were the tables of the law, represented the third or inmost heaven, and that the law or testimony represented the Lord Himself, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia, n. 3478, 9457, 9481, 9485. And that in the highest sense "the tabernacle," the same as "the temple," signifies the Lord, and in a relative sense heaven and the church, and thence the holiness of worship, n. 9457, 9481, 10242, 10245, 10304, 10545... [33] Bringing the ark into the inmost part of the temple built by Solomon has a like signification; this is thus described in the first book of Kings: Solomon prepared an adytum in the midst of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; and in the adytum he made two cherubim of wood of oil, and he set the cherubim in the midst of the inner house, so that their wings were spread forth to the wall on each side, and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house; and he overlaid the cherubim with gold. And Solomon brought up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests lifted up the ark, and brought up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the vessels of holiness that were in the tent; and Solomon and all the congregation with him before the ark. And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of Jehovah into its place, into the adytum of the house, into the holy of holies, even under the wings of the cherubim; for the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof from above, and the heads of the staves were seen from the holy place, toward the faces of the adytum, but they were not seen without. And Solomon said, There have I set a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which He made with our fathers when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt (1 Kings 6:19, 23, 27, 28; 8:1-8, 21). As the ark in the tent of meeting represented the third heaven where the Lord is, and the tent itself without the veil the second heaven, and the court the first heaven, so was it with the temple; for the temple with its courts represented the three heavens, therefore there was nothing in the temple or outside of the temple within the courts, that did not represent something of heaven, and this for the reason that the Lord at that time was present in representatives; for the churches before the Lord's coming were representative churches, and finally such as the church was that was instituted with the sons of Israel. But when the Lord came into the world, the externals that represented were abolished, for it was the Lord Himself that the representatives of the church shadowed forth and signified; and as these were external things, and as it were veilings, within which was the Lord, so when He came these veilings were taken away, and He was manifested, with heaven and the church, in which the Lord is the all in all. The primary representatives of the Lord, and thence of heaven and the church, were the tent of meeting with the table, the lamp stand, the altar of incense, and the ark there, also the altar with the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and afterwards the temple; the temple having a similar representation as the tent of meeting, with the difference that the tent of meeting was a more holy representative of the Lord, of heaven, and of the church, than the temple...


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