There’s a great deal of talk in Swedenborg about “truth” as a concept – it shows us the Lord’s will, teaches us what is good and loving, and makes it possible for us to actually act in good and loving ways. We also know that it comes in countless forms from countless source, capped off by its divine presence in the Bible.
So what does it mean when the Bible itself speaks of truth? The meaning, unsurprisingly, is pretty straightforward. Swedenborg tells us that the Lord is good itself expressed as truth itself, and when something is declared as “truth” in the Bible it means it comes from the Lord and is true down to the deepest levels of reality.
Passages from Swedenborg
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 572
572
Unless We Are Born Again and Created Anew, So to Speak, We Cannot Enter the Kingdom of God
The Lord teaches in John that if we are not born again we cannot enter the kingdom of God: “Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God'” (John 3:3). And again, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you have been born of water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit” (John 3:5, 6). The kingdom of God here means both heaven and the church, because the church is the kingdom of God on earth. The same is true in other passages in the Word where the kingdom of God is mentioned; see, for example, Matthew 11:12; 12:28; 21:43; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1, 10; 9:11, 60, 62; 17:21; and elsewhere. To be born of water and the spirit means to be born of truths related to faith and of a life lived by those truths. For truth as the meaning of water, see Revelation Unveiled 50, 614, 615, 685, 932. The fact that spirit means living our lives by divine truths is clear from the Lord’s words in John 6:63. Truly,truly means that this is the truth. Because the Lord was truth itself, Scripture frequently says Amen [or Truly]. The Lord himself is called Amen (Revelation 3:14). In the Word, those who are regenerated are referred to as children of God and those born of God; and regeneration is expressed as our having a new heart and a new spirit.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 10619
- And great in goodness and in truth. That this signifies that He is good itself and truth itself, is evident from the fact that the Divine is infinite, and concerning the infinite nothing else can be said than that it is The Itself or that It Is, thus is good itself; and because it is good itself, it is also truth itself, because all truth belongs to good. But this Itself is expressed in the sense of the letter by “great in goodness and in truth,” thus finitely, on account of the state of finite perception with man. That the Divine is good itself, is evident in Matthew:
Jesus said unto the young man, Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one, God (Matt. 19:17);
by which is meant that it is the Lord who alone is good, thus good itself. And that He is truth itself is evident in John:
Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
AE 323
[3] In David:
“Confess unto Jehovah upon the harp; sing unto him upon a psaltery of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play excellently with a loud noise. For the Word of Jehovah is right; and all his work [is done] in truth” (Ps. xxxiii. 2, 3, 4).
Because the harp signifies confession from spiritual truths, it is therefore said, Confess unto Jehovah upon the harp. A psaltery of ten strings signifies corresponding spiritual good; therefore it is said, Sing unto him upon a psaltery of ten strings; and on this account also it is said, For the Word of Jehovah is right, and all his work [is done] in truth, the truth of good being signified by, the Word of Jehovah is right, and the good of truth by, all His work is done in truth; the truth of good is the truth which proceeds from good, and the good of truth is the good which is produced by truth.