719. It is said that the sensual falsifies and adulterates the truths of the Word; but it needs to be known how it can falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word, for those who do not know how this is done and what is the nature of the Word, might think that because the truths of the Word are truths, and are plainly extant in the sense of its letter, they cannot become falsities. But to illustrate this take an example from nature, such as the natural man can clearly perceive. It appears before the eyes as if the sun were each day carried about the earth, also at the same time once each year; therefore it is said in the Word that the sun rises and sets, which causes the day, noon, evening, and night, also the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and thus days and years; and yet the sun stands unmoved, while the earth revolves daily and is carried about the sun yearly, and the progression of the sun is only an appearance and thence a fallacy. Now when this truth is known and accepted that it is not the sun but the earth that moves, both become true, namely, that the sun stands unmoved in the center of its system, and also that it has its progressions; that it stands unmoved is true for the rational man, and that it has its progressions is true for the sensual, thus both become true, true actually for the rational man, and true apparently for the sensual. And yet if the rational man does not illustrate this phenomenon the falsity is believed that the sun actually progresses, and thus the truth that the sun is not moved out of its place but that it is the earth that moves becomes falsified; but it is not falsified when the rational illustrates it. It is the same with every particular of the Word in the sense of its letter; because this is the ultimate sense it is natural, and is adapted to the comprehension of the sensual man, thus of children and the simple; for this reason most things in it are appearances of truth, and unless these are perceived at the same time from a spiritual, that is, from an enlightened understanding, they become falsities; for they are then believed to be actually true and not merely apparently true. But it is otherwise when they are perceived understandingly and spiritually; then all things of the Word become true, in the genuine sense actually true, and in the sense of the letter apparently true, as was said above respecting the sun. From this it can be seen how innumerable things in the Word are falsified and adulterated; as that God tempts, that He is angry, that He does evil, that He casts into hell; likewise, that at the day of the Last Judgment the Lord is to come in the clouds of heaven, that the sun and the moon will then withdraw their light, and the stars will fall from heaven; also that the world with the earth will perish, and a new creation of all things take place; with other things that are truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, but which become falsities if they are not perceived at the same time from an enlightened understanding. But in what follows it shall be told how faith alone, which is faith separated from charity, falsifies all things of the Word.