113. Through a good deal of experience I have been given to know that the Word is the means by which a person has a communication with heaven. When I read the Word from the first chapter of Isaiah to the last chapter of Malachi, and the Psalms of David, I was given to clearly perceive that each verse communicated with some society in heaven, and so the whole Word with the whole of heaven.
Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #104
104. The Word Is the Means by Which Those Have Light Who Are Outside the Church and Do Not Have the Word
No conjunction with heaven is possible unless somewhere on earth there is a church which has the Word and where the Lord is consequently known, because the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and there is no salvation apart from the Lord.
It is enough for a church to exist that has the Word, even if it consists of relatively few people. The Lord is still everywhere present by means of the Word throughout the whole world; for by it heaven is conjoined with the human race. To be shown that the conjunction exists by means of the Word, see nos. 62-69 above.
