New Christian Bible Study

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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #611

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611. To this I will append the following account:

People are prepared for heaven in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and at the end of that time they all to some degree or other long for heaven. Presently then their eyes are opened and they see a path leading to some society in heaven. They set out on the path and ascend, and as they ascend they come upon a gate, with a guard there. The guard opens the gate, and so they enter.

An inspector then comes to meet them, who tells them from the governor that they may go on in and look to see whether there are any houses there that they recognize as their own, for every new angel has a new house awaiting him. If newcomers find one then, they report this and remain there. But if they do not find one, they return and say that they did not find one.

At that some wise person then examines them there, to see whether the light that they possess accords with the light found in the society, and especially with the warmth in it. For the light in heaven is, in its essence, Divine truth, and the warmth in heaven is, in its essence, Divine good, both emanating from the Lord as the sun there. If the newcomers possess another light and another warmth than the light and warmth in that society, that is, a different truth and a different goodness, they are not admitted.

Therefore they leave that place and travel along paths that open between societies in heaven, and this until they find a society in complete harmony with their affections. And there they find their abode to eternity. For they are then among people like themselves, as though among relatives and friends, whom they love with a heartfelt love, because they share the same affection; and there they experience their life's bliss and a delight that fills their whole breast, because their soul is at peace. For in the warmth and light of heaven there is an indescribable delight, in which they share.

[2] Such is the case with people who become angels. But not with people caught up in evils and falsities. They are given permission to ascend into heaven, but when they enter, they begin to draw breath or breathe with difficulty, and soon their vision dims, their intellect darkens so that they can no longer think, and death hovers before their eyes. And so they stand like wooden posts. Their heart then also begins to pound, their breast to be constricted, and their mind to be seized with anguish and to be more and more tortured; and in that state they writhe like a snake placed near a fire. Consequently they roll away from there and throw themselves over a cliff that then appears to them. Nor do they rest until they are in hell with people like themselves, where they can breathe and where their heart beats freely.

After that they hate heaven and reject truth, and at heart blaspheme the Lord, believing that the torture and torment they experienced in heaven came from Him.

[3] From these few particulars it can be seen what the lot is like of people who place little value in truths, even though truths constitute the light which angels have in heaven, and who place little value in goodness, even though goodness constitutes the warmth which angels have in heaven.

It can also be seen from this how wrong those people are who believe that everyone can enjoy the bliss of heaven just by being admitted into heaven. For it is today's faith that to be received into heaven is to be received out of pure mercy, and that acceptance into heaven is like people's entrance into a wedding reception and at the same time into the joys and delights there. Let them know, however, that there is a communication of affections in the spiritual world, since a person is then a spirit, and the life of the spirit is affection, and his thinking springs from it and accords with it. Let them also know that a homogeneous affection unites, and a heterogeneous one drives apart, and that something heterogeneous causes torment, such as to a devil in heaven, and to an angel in hell. People are therefore justly separated in accordance with the diversities, varieties, and differences in the affections of their love.

[4] I was given to see more than three hundred clergy from the Protestant Reformed world, all of them learned men, because they knew how to defend faith alone to the point of its being the means of justification, and some on beyond that. And because they also shared the belief that heaven is simply a matter of admittance by grace, they were given permission to ascend into a society of heaven, though not one of the higher ones. And as they ascended together, they looked from a distance like calves, and when they entered heaven, the angels received them politely. But as they were talking together, they were seized with a trembling, then a shuddering, and finally a torment as though of impending death; and at that they cast themselves down headlong, and in their descent they looked like dead horses.

They looked like calves as they ascended because the natural affection for seeing and knowing appears, by correspondence, as frolicking about like a calf. And in their descent they looked like dead horses because an understanding of the truth in the Word appears, by correspondence, as a horse, and an understanding devoid of any truth in the Word as a dead horse.

[5] There were some boys below who saw the clergymen descending, who in their descent looked like dead horses. And at that the boys turned their faces away and said to their teacher, who was with them, "What portent is this? We saw men, and now dead horses instead. And because we could not bear to look at them, we turned our faces away. Master, let us not tarry in this place, but depart."

So they departed. And their teacher then taught them on the way what a dead horse means, saying, "A horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word. All the horses that you saw had this symbolic meaning. For when a person goes meditating on the Word, his meditation then appears from a distance like a horse - a thoroughbred and live horse as long as he ponders the Word spiritually, but a wretched and dead horse as long as he does so materially."

[6] At that the boys asked, "What does it mean to meditate on the Word spiritually or materially?"

And the teacher replied, "I will illustrate the difference by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think about God, the neighbor, and heaven? Everyone who thinks about God solely in terms of His person and not in terms of His essence, thinks materially. Everyone who thinks about the neighbor in terms of his appearance and not in terms of his character, thinks materially. And everyone who thinks about heaven solely in terms of a place, and not in terms of the love and wisdom of which heaven consists, also thinks materially."

But the boys said, "We think about God in terms of His person, about the neighbor in terms of his appearance, that he is a human being, and about heaven in terms of a place. When we would read the Word, did we then look to anyone like dead horses?"

Their teacher said, "No. You are still boys and could not think otherwise. But I have perceived in you an affection for knowing and understanding, and because that is a spiritual affection, you thought at the same time spiritually.

[7] "However, I will go back to what I said earlier, that anyone who thinks materially when he reads the Word or meditates on the Word, looks from a distance like a dead horse, but that someone who does so spiritually, looks like a live horse. Moreover, that anyone who thinks about God and about the trinity in God solely in terms of His person and not in terms of His essence, thinks about them materially. For the Divine essence has many attributes, like omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, grace, eternity, and others. And the Divine essence has attributes emanating from it, namely, creation and preservation, salvation and redemption, enlightenment and guidance. Everyone who thinks about God solely in terms of His person supposes three gods, saying that one god is the creator and preserver, another the savior and redeemer, and a third the enlightener and guide. But everyone who thinks about God in terms of His essence supposes one God, saying that God created us and preserves us, redeems us and saves us, and enlightens and guides us.

"That is why people who think about the trinity in God in terms of His person, and thus materially, cannot help but be drawn by the ideas in their thinking, which is material in nature, to make three gods out of one. But still the same people are bound, contrary to their thought, to say that in each there is a communion of all their attributes, and this only because they have thought dimly about God in terms of His essence, as though through a screen.

"Therefore, my pupils, think about God in terms of His essence and from that about His person, and do not think in terms of His person and from that about His essence. For to think about His essence in terms of His person is to think materially also about His essence, whereas to think about His person in terms of His essence is to think spiritually also about His person.

"Because gentiles of old thought materially about God and also about the attributes of God, they imagined not only three gods, but even more, as many as a hundred.

"Know then that something material does not flow into something spiritual, but that something spiritual flows into something material.

"The same is the case with thought about the neighbor in terms of his appearance and not in terms of his character, and also with thought about heaven in terms of a place and not in terms of the love and wisdom of which heaven consists.

"The same is the case with each and every particular in the Word. Consequently it is impossible for someone who entertains a material idea of God, and also of the neighbor and heaven, to understand anything in it. For him the Word is a dead letter, and when he reads it or meditates on it, he looks at a distance like a dead horse.

[8] "Those people you saw descending from heaven, who became in your eyes as though dead horses, were people who had closed the rational sight in themselves and in others by the peculiar dogma that the intellect must be held captive in obedience to their faith. They did so not thinking that an intellect closed by religion is as blind as a mole, and has in it nothing but darkness - such darkness as repels from itself any spiritual light, obstructs any influx of it from the Lord and heaven, and in matters of faith sets a barrier to it in the carnally sensual mind, far below the rational one. In other words, they put a barrier alongside the nose and fix it in its cartilage, so that afterward they cannot even catch a scent of spiritual matters. Some of those people are therefore of such a character that when they catch a whiff of spiritual matters, they fall into a swoon. By a whiff I mean a perception.

"These are the people who make God into three gods. They say, indeed, that in terms of His essence there is one God, but still, when they pray in accordance with their faith, namely, that God the Father may have mercy for the sake of the Son and send the Holy Spirit, they clearly suppose three gods. They cannot do otherwise, for they pray to one god to have mercy for the sake of another, and to send a third."

And the teacher then taught his pupils about the Lord, that He is one God, in whom is the Divine trinity.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #500

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500. To this I will append the following narrative account:

I once heard in the world of spirits a great tumult. Thousands of spirits had gathered and were crying out, "Punish them! Punish them!"

I drew nearer and asked, "What is going on?"

Leaving that great throng, one of them said to me that they were in a white-hot rage at three priests who were going about and everywhere preaching against adulterers, saying that adulterers lack any acknowledgment of God, and that heaven was closed to them and hell opened. Also that in hell they are unclean devils, because they appear at a distance there like pigs rolling around in piles of excrement, and that the angels in heaven abhor them.

I inquired where those priests were and why there was such an outcry on that account.

He replied that the three priests were in their midst, surrounded by bodyguards, and that the gathering consisted of people who believe that adulteries are not sins and who maintain that adulterers have an acknowledgment of God just as much as those who are faithful to their wives. "They are all from the Christian world," he said, "and when they were once visited by angels to see how many among them believed that adulteries were sins, not a hundred in a thousand were found who did."

Moreover he told me that the remaining nine hundred speak in regard to adulteries as follows:

[2] "Who does not know that the delight in adultery far surpasses the delight of marriage? That adulterers experience a perpetual state of heat and so possess a more vigorous, energetic and active life than those who live with just one woman? And that, conversely, love with one's married partner grows cold, and this sometimes to such a degree that at last scarcely a word of conversation and companionship with her has any vitality? It is different with loose women. The gradual deadening of life with a wife owing to a failure of ability is refreshed and invigorated by licentious affairs. Is not something that refreshes and invigorates better than something that deadens?

"What is marriage but legalized licentiousness? Who knows any difference between them? Can love be compelled? Yet love with a wife is compelled by covenant and laws. Is love with a partner not a sexual love? Yet this is so universal that it exists also in birds and animals. What is conjugial love but a love for the opposite sex? Yet love for the opposite sex is set free when enjoyed with every woman.

"There are civil laws against adultery because legislators have believed that it accorded with the public good, and yet the legislators themselves and judges sometimes commit adultery, and then say to each other, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.' 1 Only the simple and religious believe that adulteries are sins. Not so the intelligent, who, like us, view them in the light of nature.

[3] "Are children not born of adulteries in the same way as in marriages? Are illegitimate offspring not just as fit and serviceable for offices and ministries as legitimate ones? And besides, children are thus provided for families that would be otherwise childless. Is this not beneficial rather than harmful?

"What harm does it do a wife if she admits a number of rivals? And what harm does it do her husband? The idea that the husband is disgraced is a frivolous opinion springing from the imagination.

"The decree that adultery is contrary to the laws and statutes of the church comes from the ecclesiastical order in order to gain power. But what does theology and spirituality have to do with merely physical and fleshly delight? Are there not clergymen and monks who are adulterers? Are they unable on that account to acknowledge and worship God? Why then do these three priests preach that adulterers are without any acknowledgment of God? We will not tolerate such blasphemies. Therefore let them be judged and punished."

[4] After that I saw them summon judges, and they asked the judges to impose penalties on the priests.

But the judges said, "This does not fall within our province, for it has to do with acknowledgment of God and sin and thus with salvation and damnation. Judgment with respect to these has to come from heaven.

"However, we will advise you as to how you can ascertain whether these three priests have been preaching the truth. There are three places known to us judges where matters of this sort are explored and revealed in a singular manner. One is a place in which a path to heaven lies open to all, but where, when they arrive in heaven, they themselves perceive what their character is in respect to their acknowledgment of God. The second is a place where a path lies open to heaven also, but which no one can enter unless he has heaven in him. And the third is a place where there is a path leading to hell, which those who love hellish things enter of their own accord, because they are drawn by their delight.

"We judges send to those places all who demand judgment from us in cases dealing with heaven and hell."

[5] Upon hearing this, the people gathered said, "Let us go to those places."

So they went to the first, where a path to heaven lies open to all; and as they were going, suddenly they were enveloped in darkness, so that some of them lighted torches and held them before them.

The judges, who had accompanied them, said, "This happens to all who go to the first place, but as they draw near, the blaze of their torches becomes fainter, and on their reaching the place itself is extinguished, because of the light of heaven flowing in - a sign that they have arrived. The reason for this phenomenon is that heaven is first closed to them and then opened."

So they came to that place, and as the torches went out of themselves, they saw a sloping path leading upward to heaven. The people who were in a white-hot rage at the priests entered it. Among the first were those who were purposeful adulterers, behind them those who were deliberate adulterers. And as they ascended the first began to cry out, "Follow us," and those behind cried, "Hurry," so as to urge them on.

[6] A short time later, after they were all inside a heavenly society, a gulf appeared between them and the angels, and the light of heaven flowing over the gulf into their eyes opened the interior elements of their minds, so that they were compelled to speak as they inwardly thought. Whereupon the angels then inquired of them whether they acknowledged the existence of God.

The first group, those who were adulterers from a purpose of the will, replied, "What is God?" And looking at each other they said, "Have any of you seen Him?"

The second group, those who were adulterers from a persuasion of the intellect, said, "Is not everything attributable to nature? What exists above it but the sun?"

At that the angels then said to them, "Depart from us. You yourselves now see that you lack any acknowledgment of God. When you descend, the interior elements of your minds will be closed and the outer ones opened, and after that you can speak contrary to your inner thoughts and say that God exists. Be certain of this, that as soon as a person becomes an actual adulterer, heaven is closed to him, and when it is closed, he does not acknowledge God. Hear the reason: From adulteries springs all the uncleanness of hell, and this stinks in heaven like the putrid filth of the streets 2 ."

Hearing this, the people turned and descended by three paths. And when they were below, the first and second groups conferred with each other and said, "The priests won there; but we know that we can speak of God just as well as they, and when we say that He exists, do we not acknowledge Him? These inner and outer elements of our minds that the angels told us about are fictions.

"But let us go to the second place described by the judges, where a path lies open to heaven for those who have heaven in them, thus for those who are destined for heaven."

[7] So they went, and as they approached, from that heaven went out the cry, "Close the gates! There are adulterers in the vicinity!"

Suddenly then the gates were closed, and guards with staffs in their hands drove them away. And they took from them the three priests in their keeping, against whom they had raised such a tumult, and conducted them into their heaven. The moment the gate was opened for the priests, moreover, immediately there wafted over the insurgents the delight of marriage, which because of its chastity and purity almost suffocated them.

For fear of fainting from loss of breath, therefore, they hastened to the third place that the judges had told them of, where they had said there was a path leading to hell; and wafting out from there then was the delight of adultery, which so revived those who were purposeful and deliberate adulterers that they almost danced as they descended; and on descending they immersed themselves like pigs there in unclean dirt and filth.

Footnotes:

1. Quoting John 8:7.

2. Which in Swedenborg's day included garbage thrown out of windows and the droppings of horses.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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