True Christianity: The Portable New Century Edition, Volume 1

In fact, without its literal meaning the Word would be like a human
body without the coverings called the skin and membranes or the struc-
tural supports called the bones. Without these all the inner organs would
fall apart.
It would be like the heart and the lungs in the thorax without the
covering called the pleura and the structural supports called the ribs. It
would be like the brain without the coverings called the dura and the pia
mater and without the general covering, container, and structural sup-
port called the skull. This is how the Word would be without its literal
meaning. Therefore it says in Isaiah, “Over all glory Jehovah creates a
covering” (Isaiah 4 : 5 ).

4

In the Literal Meaning of the Word,

Divine Truth Exists in Its Completeness, Holiness, and Power

In the literal meaning, the Word exists in its completeness, holiness, and 214
power because, as I said above in §§ 210 , 212 , the two prior or deeper
meanings called the spiritual and the heavenly meanings are together in
the earthly or literal meaning. I will say some more about how they come
together.
Both in heaven and on earth there is a sequential arrangement and
there is a simultaneous arrangement. In a sequential arrangement, one
thing comes after another from the highest level down to the lowest. In a
simultaneous arrangement, however, one thing is beside another from
inmost to outermost. A sequential arrangement is like a column with levels
that form steps from top to bottom. A simultaneous arrangement is like a
collapsed object with larger and larger cylinders from the center to the out-
ermost surface.
Now I will say how a sequential arrangement turns eventually into a
simultaneous arrangement. It happens in the following way: the highest
parts of a sequential arrangement become the innermost parts of a simul-
taneous arrangement, and the lowest parts of a sequential arrangement
become the outermost parts of a simultaneous arrangement. It is like the
column of steps collapsing to become a coherent flat surface. This is how
something simultaneous is formed out of a succession.

§214 sacred scripture 291