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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 #926

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926. To this I will append the following account:

When I was engaged in explaining chapter 20 and thinking about the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, someone appeared to me and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

I said, "About the false prophet."

Then he said, "I will take you down to the place where those people reside who are meant by the false prophet. They are," he said, "the same people as those meant in chapter 13 by the beast from the earth, which had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon."

I followed him, and behold, I saw a crowd of people, and in their midst some priests who had taught that nothing else saves a person but faith, and that works are good, but not for salvation. Yet works, they said, must still be taught from the Word in order to keep the laity, especially the simple, more tightly in bonds of obedience toward their magistrates, and to compel them, as though by religion, thus from a deeper motive, to exercise a moral charity.

[2] One of the priests then, seeing me, said, "Would you like to see our chapel? We have an image representative of our faith there."

I went over and looked, and behold, it was magnificent. And at its center was the image of a woman, dressed in a scarlet garment, holding in her right hand a gold coin, and in her left a string of pearls. Both the chapel and the image, however, were produced by illusions. For spirits in hell can use illusions to represent magnificent things by closing the inner constituents of the mind and opening only its outer ones. But when I noticed that the spirits were such sorcerers, I prayed to the Lord, and suddenly the interiors of my mind were opened; and instead of a magnificent chapel I saw a building filled with cracks from the ceiling to the floor, with nothing in it holding together. And instead of the woman I saw in the building a statue hanging, with a head like that of a dragon, a body like that of a leopard, and feet like those of a bear, being thus like the description of the beast from the sea in the book of Revelation, chapter 13. Moreover, the floor was replaced by a swamp teeming with frogs. And I was told that beneath the swamp was a large hewn stone, under which lay the Word, well hidden.

[3] Seeing these changes, I said to the sorcerer, "Is this your chapel?" And he said it was.

But suddenly then his inner sight was opened too, and he saw the same changes I saw. And seeing them, he cried with a great cry, "What is this? And why did it happen?"

So I said that it was due to light from heaven, which exposes the true character of every form. "And in this case," I told them, "it is the character of your faith that is divorced from any spiritual charity."

Immediately then an eastern wind came and took everything there away; and it also dried up the swamp, and so laid bare the stone under which lay the Word. After that a spring-like warmth wafted over me from heaven, and behold, I saw in that same place a tent, simple in its outward form.

Then some angels who were with me said, "Behold, the tent of Abraham, as it was when the three angels came to him and announced the future birth of Isaac. It looks simple to the eye, but it becomes more and more magnificent in proportion to the influx of light from heaven."

It was given them then to open the heaven inhabited by spiritual angels, who are characterized by wisdom, and owing to the light flowing in from there the tent looked like a temple, like the one in Jerusalem. And when I looked inside, I saw a foundation stone beset with precious stones, under which the Word had been placed. From the precious stones flashed light like that of lightning on the walls, which had on them figures of cherubim, and it bathed them in beautifully variegated colors.

[4] While I was admiring these things, the angels said, "You will see something still more marvelous." And it was given them to open the third heaven, inhabited by celestial angels, who are characterized by love, and then, owing to the light flowing in from there, the temple completely vanished, and in its stead I saw the Lord alone, standing on the foundation stone, which was the Word, in an appearance like that in which John saw Him in chapter 1 of the book of Revelation. But because a reverence then filled the interiors of the angels' minds, which produced in them an urge to fall prostrate upon their faces, suddenly the Lord closed the course of the light from the third heaven and opened the course of the light from the second heaven, and therefore the earlier appearance of a temple returned, and also that of the tent, but in the temple.

These experiences served to illustrate what is meant by the words in this chapter,

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them (verse 3, no. 882) 1

And by the words,

I saw no temple in (the New Jerusalem), for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (verse 22, no. 918).

Footnotes:

1. In the original Latin, the word for tent and the word for tabernacle are the same.

  
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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

 

True Christian Religion #621

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621. 1 At this point I shall insert some accounts of experiences, of which this is the first.

I saw a gathering of spirits all on their knees praying God to send them angels, with whom they could talk face to face, and open to them the thoughts of their hearts. When they got up, three angels dressed in fine linen were to be seen standing before them. 'The Lord Jesus Christ,' they said, 'has heard your prayers and has therefore sent us to you. Open to us the thoughts of your hearts.'

[2] 'Our priests have told us,' they answered, 'that in theological matters it is not the understanding but faith which is effective; and that faith based on the understanding is no help in such matters, because it derives from and smacks of man, not of God. We are English, and we have heard a lot from our ministers of religion, which we believed. But when we talked with others, who also called themselves Reformed, and with others who called themselves Roman Catholics, and even with members of sects, they all appeared to be learned, yet on many subjects there was not one who agreed with another. All the same, they all said, "Believe us," and some said, "We are God's ministers, and we know." But we know that the Divine truths, which are called the truths of faith and are possessed by the church, do not come to anyone from his native soil or by heredity, but from God out of heaven; and they show the way to heaven, entering a person's life together with the good of charity, and so leading to everlasting life. So we became worried, and prayed on our knees to God.'

[3] 'Read the Word,' the angels said to this, 'and believe in the Lord, and you will see truths which will be your guides to faith and life. All Christian people draw their doctrines from the Word as being their one and only source.' But two of the gathering said, 'We have read it, but not understood it.'

'You did not approach the Lord,' replied the angels, 'and He is the Word. Also you had first convinced yourselves of falsities.' The angels went on: 'What is faith without light, and what is thinking without understanding? This is not how human beings act. Ravens and jays can learn to talk without understanding too. We can assure you that every person whose soul so desires can see the truths of the Word in light. There does not exist an animal which does not know the food it needs to live on, when it sees it. Man is a rational and spiritual animal, so he knows the food not so much his body as his soul needs to live on. That is the truth of faith, provided he is hungry for it and begs the Lord for it.

[4] 'Moreover, anything that the understanding does not take in is not retained by the memory as a fact, but merely as words. So when we looked down on the world from heaven, we could see nothing, but only heard sounds, which were for the most part discordant. But we shall mention some things which the learned among the clergy have banished from the understanding, being unaware that there are two routes to the understanding, one from the world and the other from heaven. The Lord withdraws the understanding from the world, as He enlightens it. But if religion dictates that the understanding is to be shut off, the route to it from heaven is shut off, and then one sees no more in the Word than a blind man. We have seen many such people fall into pits, and be unable to get out of them again.

[5] 'Let us give some examples to illustrate this. Surely you can understand what charity and faith are - that charity is doing good to the neighbour, and faith is having a correct idea of God and the essential doctrines of the church? And as a result, that a person who does good and has a correct idea, that is to say, who lives a good life and has a correct belief, is saved?' They said that they understood this.

[6] The angels went on to say that for a person to be saved he must repent of his sins, and unless he does so, he remains in the sins to which he was born. Repentance consists in not willing evils because they are sins against God; and once or twice a year examining oneself, seeing one's evils and confessing them to the Lord, asking for help, desisting from those evils and starting a new life. So far as a person does this and believes in the Lord, so far are his sins forgiven. 'We understand this,' said some of the gathering, 'and so we know what the forgiveness of sins is.'

[7] Then they asked the angels to tell them more, and this time about God, the immortality of the soul, regeneration and baptism.

'We shall not say anything,' the angels replied, 'which you cannot understand. If we did, our words would be like rain falling on a desert and the seeds it holds, which, despite being watered from heaven, still wither away and die.'

On the subject of God they said: 'All who come to heaven are allotted their place, and thus have everlasting joy, depending upon the idea they have of God, because it is this idea which is universally dominant in every detail of worship. To think of God as a spirit, if a spirit is believed to be like the ether or the wind, is meaningless. But to think of God as Man is a correct notion, because God is Divine love and Divine wisdom, with all their attributes; and that of which love and wisdom can be predicated is man, not ether or wind. In heaven they think of God as the Lord the Saviour; as He taught us, He is the God of heaven and earth. Make your idea of God like ours, and we shall welcome you into our company.' When they said this, the faces of the others lit up.

[8] On the immortality of the soul they said: 'Man lives for ever, because by means of love and faith he can be linked with God. Every single person has this capacity. And if you think a little more deeply about it, you can understand that this capacity constitutes the immortality of the soul.'

[9] On regeneration: 'Anyone can see that any person is free to think about God or not to think about Him, so long as he has been taught that there is a God. So anyone has just as much freedom in spiritual as in social or natural matters. The Lord continually grants this to all; so a person is to blame, if he fails to think about God. It is this capacity which makes man a man, and its absence makes an animal an animal. Man can therefore reform and regenerate himself as if of himself, so long as he acknowledges in his heart that this comes from the Lord. Everyone who repents and believes in the Lord is reformed and regenerated. A person should do both as if of himself, but this as if of himself comes from the Lord. It is true that a person cannot from himself contribute anything, not in the slightest, to that process. Yet you have not been created statues; you were created human beings, so that you could do it from the Lord as if of yourselves. It is this and this alone which is the reciprocal offering of love and faith, which the Lord expressly wills should be made to Him by man. In short, act from yourselves and believe that it is from the Lord; that is how to act as if of yourselves.'

[10] Then they asked whether acting as if of oneself was implanted in man from creation. The angel replied: 'It is not implanted, because acting from himself is an attribute only of God. But it is continually given, that is to say, it is continually being applied; and then so far as a person does good and believes truth as if of himself, he is an angel of heaven. But so far as he does evil and thus believes falsity, and this too is as if of himself, so far is he a spirit of hell. You may be surprised that this too is as if of oneself, but still you can see this, when you pray to be protected from the devil seducing you, from him entering into you as he did into Judas, from filling you with every wickedness and destroying you both soul and body. But everyone becomes responsible, if he believes he is acting of himself, whether it is good or evil that he does. But he does not incur guilt, if he believes he is acting as if of himself. For if he believes that he does good of himself, he is claiming for himself what belongs to God; and if he believes that he does evil of himself, he is attributing to himself what belongs to the devil.'

[11] On baptism they said that it was a spiritual washing, and this is reformation and regeneration. 'A child is reformed and regenerated when on growing up he does what his godparents pledged on his behalf, the two promises of repentance and faith in God. For they first pledge that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and secondly, that he will believe in God. All children in heaven are taught those two promises, but for them the devil is hell and God is the Lord. Moreover, baptism is a sign visible to the angels that a person belongs to the church.' When they heard this, some in the gathering said: 'We understand this.'

[12] But at this point a voice was heard from one side shouting: 'We do not understand;' and another: 'We do not want to understand.' They made enquiry to discover whose voices these were, and discovered that they came from those who had convinced themselves of false beliefs, and wanted to be believed like oracles, so receiving worship.

'Do not be surprised,' said the angels, 'there are many like this at the present time. To us seeing them from heaven they look like carved images so cunningly made that they can move their lips and make noises, like musical instruments. But they are quite unaware whether the breath that makes them sound blows from hell or from heaven, because they do not know whether a thing is false or true. They keep on reasoning and producing proofs, yet cannot see whether anything is so or not. But you should know that the human brain can prove anything it wants, so that it really appears to be so. So this is something heretics or irreligious people can do; in fact atheists can prove that God does not exist, only nature.'

[13] After this the gathering of Englishmen was fired with a desire for wisdom and said to the angels: 'Such varying ideas are expressed regarding the Holy Supper, tell us what is the truth.'

'The truth is,' the angels answered, 'that a person who looks to the Lord and repents is by that most holy act linked to the Lord and brought into heaven.'

But people in the gathering said: 'This is a mystery.' 'It is a mystery,' the angels replied, 'but one that can be understood. The bread and wine do not bring this about; there is nothing holy about them. But material bread and spiritual bread correspond to each other, and so do material wine and spiritual wine. Spiritual bread is the holiness of love, spiritual wine the holiness of faith. Both of these are from the Lord, and both are the Lord. Thus there is a linking of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord. It is not with the bread and wine, but with the love and faith of the man who has repented. Being linked with the Lord is also being brought into heaven.'

Now that the angels had taught them something about correspondence, some in the gathering said: 'Now for the first time we can understand this.' As soon as they said this, a flaming radiance came down from heaven and joined them to the angels' company, and they loved one another.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated with modifications from Apocalypse Revealed 224.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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