New Christian Bible Study

Commentary

 

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 #802

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

802. We say that from the Roman Catholic religion, meant by the city of Babylon, comes the adulteration and profanation of all the truth of the Word and so of every sanctity of the church; and a number of times previously we have said that that religion has not only adulterated the Word's goods and truths, but has also profaned them; and that Babylon in the Word therefore symbolizes the profanation of what is holy. We will now say how that profanation came about and continues.

We said above that the love of exercising dominion, springing from a love of self, over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over all the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, is the Devil. 1 Now because that dominion was fixed as the objective in the hearts of those who founded the Roman Catholic religion, they could not help but profane the sanctities of the Word and the church.

Suppose that that love, which is the Devil, is inwardly fixed in someone's mind, as is the case with every reigning love, and place some Divine truth outwardly before his eyes. Would he not tear it up, throw it on the ground, and trample it, and in its place summon up some falsity agreeable to him?

[2] A love of possessing all the goods of the world is Satan, and the Devil and Satan act in concert, as though bound together by covenant, in the kind of people who, owing to the one love, are caught up in the other.

One may conclude from this why it is that Babylon in the Word symbolizes profanation.

By way of illustration, place before that love, which is the Devil, this Divine truth, that God alone is to be worshiped and adored, and not some man, thus that the Vicariate is a fabrication and a fiction which ought to be rejected. Or else this truth, that to call upon the dead, to fall prostrate before their images, to kiss them and their bones, is a pure and foul idolatry that ought also to be rejected. Would not that love, which is the Devil, vehemently and angrily reject these two truths, fulminate against them, and tear them to pieces?

[3] If, moreover, someone were to say to that love, which is the Devil, that to open and close heaven or loose and bind, thus to forgive sins - which is the same thing as reforming and regenerating and thus redeeming and saving mankind - is a work purely Divine; that a person cannot claim for himself something Divine without committing profanation; that Peter did not claim it for himself, and therefore did not exercise any such power; moreover that the apostolic succession was fabricated by that love, as was also the transference of the Holy Spirit from one person to another - on hearing these things, would not that love, which is the Devil, deafen with anathemas the person saying them, and in a fiery rage command that he be turned over to an inquisitor and thrown into a prison of the condemned?

If someone still were to ask, "How can the Lord's Divine power be transferred to you? How can the Lord's Divinity be separated from His soul and body? Is it not according to your belief that this cannot be done? How can God the Father impart His Divine power to the Son except to His own Divinity as its receptacle? How can this be transferred to a person so as to be his?" And many other like things.

Hearing them, would not that love, which is the Devil, fall silent, rage within, gnash its teeth, and cry, "Take this person away! Crucify him, crucify him! Everyone go, go! See the great heretic and amuse yourselves!"

Footnotes:

1. nos. 796:2, 797:1.

  
/ 962  
  

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

 

Survey of Teachings of the New Church #118

Study this Passage

  
/ 120  
  

118. Three Memorable Occurrences Taken from Revelation Unveiled

The first memorable occurrence. Once as I was explaining chapter 20 in the Book of Revelation and was meditating on the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, an angelic spirit appeared to me and asked what I was meditating on. I said, “The false prophet.”

The angelic spirit said, “I will take you to the place where the spirits meant by the false prophet are.” He added, “They are the same spirits portrayed in chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation as the beast from the earth who had two horns like a lamb, but who spoke like a dragon.”

I followed the angelic spirit. To my surprise I saw a crowd with church leaders in the center of it. The leaders were teaching that nothing saves us except faith in Christ’s merit and that works are good things to do, but not for our salvation. They were also proclaiming that works need to be taught from the Word so as to put lay people, especially simple ones, on a leash so that they obey their civic leaders and feel compelled from within by religion to practice moral goodwill.

[2] Then one of them saw me and said, “Do you want to see our shrine? It has a sculpture in it that portrays our faith.”

I went and saw it. It was magnificent! In the center of the shrine there was a statue of a woman dressed in scarlet clothes. She had a gold coin in her right hand and a chain of pearls in her left.

Both the statue and the shrine, however, were projected images. Hellish spirits have the ability to portray magnificent things using projected images. They do it by closing off the inner levels of our mind and opening only its outer levels.

When I realized that the statue and the shrine were conjured up through sorcery I prayed to the Lord. Suddenly the inner levels of my mind were opened. Then instead of a magnificent shrine, I saw a house that was full of cracks from the roof all the way to the foundation. Nothing in it was solidly connected. Instead of the woman, I saw a dummy hanging in the house, which had the head of a dragon, the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. It was exactly like the beast from the sea described in Revelation 13:2. Instead of the floor, there was a swamp that contained thousands of frogs. I was told that under the swamp there was a great hewn stone; and beneath it the Word lay deeply hidden.

[3] Seeing this I said to the sorcerer, “Is this your shrine?”

“It is,” the sorcerer said.

Just then, though, the sorcerer’s inner sight opened up as well. The sorcerer saw the same things I was seeing and loudly shouted, “What is this? Where did this come from?”

“It came from the light of heaven,” I said, “which has disclosed the true quality of each form here, including the quality of your faith, which has been separated from spiritual goodwill.”

Immediately the east wind came up and blew away the shrine with the sculpture. It dried up the swamp and exposed the stone that had the Word lying underneath it.

Then a warm, springlike breeze blew in from heaven. To my surprise I then saw a tent in that same place, a very simple one in its outer form.

Angels who were with me said, “Look, it is Abraham’s tent just as it was when the three angels came to him to announce that Isaac was going to be born [Genesis 18:1, 2, and following]. The tent looks simple to the eye, but as the light of heaven flows in, it becomes more and more magnificent.”

The angels were then granted the ability to open the heaven where spiritual angels live—the angels who have wisdom. In the light that flowed in from that heaven, the tent looked like the Temple in Jerusalem. When I looked inside, I saw that the foundation stone under which the Word had been hidden was now covered in precious stones. From the precious stones a kind of lightning was flashing onto walls that had reliefs of angel guardians on them, giving the angel guardians beautifully different colors.

[4] As I was feeling awestruck by these sights, the angels said, “You are about to see things that are even more miraculous.” They were then granted the ability to open the third heaven where heavenly angels live—the angels who have love. As a result of the light that flowed in from that heaven, the entire temple disappeared. In its place I saw the Lord alone, standing on the foundation stone, which was the Word. He looked much the way he had when seen by John in Revelation chapter 1.

Yet because holiness then filled the inner realms of the angels’ minds so that they felt an overwhelming urge to fall forward on their faces, suddenly the channel of light from the third heaven was closed by the Lord and the channel of light from the second heaven was reopened. As a result, the earlier appearance of a temple, and also a tent, returned. The tent was in the temple.

These experiences illustrated what Revelation 21 means when it says, “Behold, the tent of God is among people, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3); and when it says, “I saw no temple in the New Jerusalem, because the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22).

  
/ 120  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

©2024 New Christian Bible Study Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed from newchristianbiblestudy.org