1. The Word is the Lord, being the presentation of His thoughts (truths) and of His feelings (goods).
2. The Word is therefore fully Divine and is holy in every detail.
3. It has three three discrete degrees of existence (like the Lord) and of meaning: the celestial sense, the spiritual sense and the natural sense.
4. The Lord flows into the celestial sense, and then into the spiritual sense, and then into the natural sense, making the natural sense the ultimate (or last) sense.
5. This influx or inflowing produces a correspondence among the three senses and among the goods and truths of the three senses.
6. The natural sense is the base, the container, and the complex of the other two senses.
7. The fullness, the holiness and the power of the Lord’s Word are in the natural sense.
8. The natural sense has genuine truths (statements that openly reveal the spiritual or, sometimes, celestial sense) and apparent truths (statements that conceal the other senses).
9. The Heavenly Doctrines reveal the spiritual and, sometimes, the celestial sense of some of the passages of the natural sense of the Old and New Testaments by the use of correspondences and genuine truth.
10. The Word has three revelations: the Old Testament (with few genuine truths), the New Testament (with more genuine truths), and the Heavenly Doctrines (which is mostly the presentation of genuine truths).
11. The Old Testament has general truths, sensual truths and exterior truths.
The New Testament has less general truths, [imaginative truths] and interior truths.
The Heavenly Doctrines have the least general truths, rational truths and more interior truths.
12. The Old Testament was written for the ancient Israelites and appeals to the sensual level of the human mind (see below). The New Testament was written for the ancient Greco-Roman world and appeals to the imaginative level of the human mind. The Heavenly Doctrines were written for the modern world and appeals to the rational level of the human mind.
13. All Divine revelation, which is the Word, is made by means of humans through dictation when the revelator is evil or ignorant, or through perception when the revelator is good and knowledgeable. For example, the Heavenly Doctrines were revealed by means of Swedenborg who was given perception from the Lord.
14. The purpose of the Word is human salvation.
