Swedenborg Sampler

Étape 1: Swedenborg Sampler Introduction

Étape 2: Part 1: True Christian Religion

Étape 3: What is God's love like?

Étape 4: Why doesn't God save everyone?

Étape 5: Why do we need the Lord?

Étape 6: The power He can give us

Étape 7: Fatal errors in traditional Christian doctrine

Étape 8: Why is a notion of God such a remote part of Western culture?

Étape 9: What do people see when they look at the Word of God?

Étape 10: The Word's deeper meaning

Étape 11: The Word's deeper meaning (continued)

Étape 12: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal")

Étape 13: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Étape 14: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Étape 15: How do we acquire faith?

Étape 16: How much do we have to know?

Étape 17: What is charity?

Étape 18: What is charity? (continued)

Étape 19: First remove the beam from your own eye

Étape 20: True expressions of charity are God working through us

Étape 21: Doesn't everyone believe that people have freedom of choice in spiritual things?

Étape 22: Our freedom exists from our spirit

Étape 23: What seems like freedom isn't necessarily so

Étape 24: Repentance is the first thing of the church with a person

Étape 25: Repentance is not just a matter of saying the right words

Étape 26: A person is not born evil, but is born with inclinations to love things that are evil

Étape 27: Seeing good and evil within our own lives

Étape 28: What is real repentance?

Étape 29: It's easier to see sin in another than in oneself

Étape 30: Two advancing states of mind for those on the path to heaven

Étape 31: The Lord brings about spiritual rebirth with our cooperation

Étape 32: What is temptation?

Étape 33: Why do some people think that God doesn't care what choices we make in our daily life?

Étape 34: There is a current drawing all toward heaven

Étape 35: Part 2: Arcana Coelestia

Étape 36: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word

Étape 37: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word (continued)

Étape 38: The state of mind of a person before his regeneration

Étape 39: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . .

Étape 40: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . . (continued)

Étape 41: Seeing the evil in others versus seeing the good in them

Étape 42: How the love of self blinds a person to reality

Étape 43: Why Christianity has been split into conflicting groups

Étape 44: What motivates a person's efforts in difficult times?

Étape 45: Without charity in our hearts we cannot live together as brethren

Étape 46: The Lord never compels anyone because it doesn't work; each person needs to compel himself

Étape 47: The quality of a person who knows the truth but doesn't care about what is good

Étape 48: True wisdom of life is gentle and yet also conquers all

Étape 49: The essential importance of self‑compulsion

Étape 50: The Lord's willingness to adapt to where a person is

Étape 51: Prayer regarded in itself is talking with God

Étape 52: An affirmative or negative approach to God's Word

Étape 53: Feeling terrible can lead to wisdom

Étape 54: The Lord cares for the very tiniest details of our lives

Étape 55: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil

Étape 56: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil (continued)

Étape 57: The Lord does not allow the evil which accompanies doubt and temptation unless some good can come of it

Étape 58: Peace has in it confidence in the Lord

Étape 59: Care for the morrow and trusting in the Lord

Étape 60: The Lord looks after the details as well as the big picture

Étape 61: Stages of human development

Étape 62: Part 3: Divine Love and Wisdom

Étape 63: Love is the life of a person

Étape 64: Feeling the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving

Étape 65: If a person thinks from ideas of space and time, he can never understand God or anything spiritual

Étape 66: Without a knowledge of discrete degrees [spiritual levels] nothing of cause can be known

Étape 67: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person

Étape 68: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person (continued)

Étape 69: What distinguishes humans from animals?

Étape 70: In the human mind the will and understanding work together, but the will leads

Étape 71: The quality life of a person who is natural but with whom the spiritual degree of his mind is opened

Étape 72: The quality of life of a person who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not opened, yet not closed

Étape 73: The quality of life of a person life who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not entirely closed.

Étape 74: A bad person as well as a good one who has both freedom and rationality

Étape 75: In a state of evil, goodness seems like slavery and evil like freedom

Étape 76: True love has use for an end and intends it

Étape 77: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for sustaining the body

Étape 78: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for perfecting the rational

Étape 79: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord

Étape 80: Reasons why it is excusable for some people to see nature as a source of life

Étape 81: Love of self and the world were by creation heavenly loves

Étape 82: Part 4: Divine Providence

Étape 83: A person can see the Lord's hand in all of creation if he wishes

Étape 84: The Divine Providence of the Lord has as its goal a heaven from the human race

Étape 85: The more someone recognizes what he gets from the Lord, the more free he is

Étape 86: It is a law of the Divine Providence that people should act from freedom according to reason [that is, according their best understanding of what is true].

Étape 87: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should, apparently by their own power, remove evil [thoughts and deeds] as sins in the external person.

Étape 88: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and therefore to believe and love, the things of religion, but should persuade and at times compel himself to do so.

Étape 89: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this to all appearance as of himself.

Étape 90: The Word taught by means of people, but still directly by the Lord

Étape 91: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but still that he should know and acknowledge it.

Étape 92: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events?

Étape 93: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events? (continued)

Étape 94: How would we tend to behave if we were able to clearly see the direction the Lord is leading us?

Étape 95: God is the master architect of our eternal lives

Étape 96: If therefore, you wish to be led by the Divine Providence. . . .

Étape 97: What is fortune or luck?

Étape 98: Images of the Divine Providence operating in our lives

Étape 99: The Lord never wills that an evil [event] should happen, but He does permit it to occur

Étape 100: Reasons why people doubt or deny that there is such a thing as the Divine Providence

Étape 101: Evil [loves] cannot be removed unless they appear

Étape 102: No one is born to fry

Étape 103: The operation of the Divine Providence from birth to the end of life

Étape 104: Part 5: Conjugial Love

Étape 105: Very few people know the true source of joy in heaven

Étape 106: What happened to people who arrived in the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from endless opportunities for wonderful conversations?

Étape 107: What happened to people who arrived at the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from mere admission to heaven?

Étape 108: In the life after death a male is still very much a male and a female very much a female

Étape 109: What about the Lord's statement from the New Testament that there is no marriage after death?

Étape 110: What is a male angel's reaction to the opposite sex?

Étape 111: What happens when married partners meet after death?

Étape 112: Why some marriages formed on earth do not continue to eternity?

Étape 113: All joys and all delights are gathered within a true love of marriage

Étape 114: A true love of marriage requires a person to approach the Lord directly

Étape 115: The arguments of a polygamist (in the life after death) on why his approach to marriage is best

Étape 116: Contrary to some people's ideas, the husband is not the head of the wife

Étape 117: Love of marriage is closely related to a person's outlook on religion

Étape 118: The states of mind that accompany a true love of marriage

Étape 119: Will my marriage get better or worse as time goes by?

Étape 120: What happens when a relationship is a power struggle?

Étape 121: A temporal or non-eternal focus is contradictory to a true love of marriage

Étape 122: The first meeting of a future husband and wife in heaven

Étape 123: Spiritual intimacy is the real basis for a true love of marriage

Étape 124: Part 6: Heaven and Hell

Étape 125: Why did Swedenborg have the experiences that he did, and why was this book written?

Étape 126: The Lord loves variety

Étape 127: Everything of this world springs from and has permanent existence from the spiritual world

Étape 128: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun

Étape 129: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun (continued)

Étape 130: The ups and downs in the life of an angel

Étape 131: Life in heaven does not follow a clock

Étape 132: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Étape 133: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Étape 134: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way

Étape 135: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way (continued)

Étape 136: What is the innocence of a wise person?

Étape 137: What is heavenly joy like?

Étape 138: What happens to children who die?

Étape 139: What happens to children who die? (continued)

Étape 140: Children in heaven need to learn how to resist the pressure to follow others

Étape 141: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven

Étape 142: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven (continued)

Étape 143: What happens after death to someone who intentionally chose a deprived life to earn a heavenly reward?

Étape 144: Being poor can lead one away from heaven just as much as being rich

Étape 145: How big is heaven?

Étape 146: How big is heaven? (continued)

Étape 147: Angels live at the peak of youthful life forever

Étape 148: We are spirits even now

Étape 149: We are spirits even now (continued)

Étape 150: The end of natural life is but a passing

Étape 151: Intention makes the person

Étape 152: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death?

Étape 153: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Étape 154: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Étape 155: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Étape 156: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Étape 157: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Étape 158: It is not so difficult to lead the life that leads to heaven

Étape 159: How is there a balance between the power of heaven and that of hell?

Étape 160: Determined evil can be controlled only by punishments

Étape 161: How does anyone end up in hell if the Lord sends no one there?

Étape 162: What is it like to arrive in a community in hell?

Étape 163: How does the equilibrium between heaven and hell affect our lives?