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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

 

Conjugial Love #231

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231. To this I will append three narrative accounts. Here is the first:

I once heard some clamorings from below, which sounded as though they were gurgling up through water. I heard one clamor to the left crying, "Oh, how just!" Another to the right crying, "Oh, how learned!" And a third one behind me crying, "Oh, how wise!" Then, because it struck me to wonder whether there are any just, learned or wise people in hell, I began to feel a wish to see if people of this sort might be found there; and it was told me from heaven, "You will both see and hear."

So I left home in the spirit, and I saw in the ground before me an opening. I went over to it and looked down, and behold, it had a stairway in it. I went down this stairway, and when I reached the bottom, I saw fields covered with bushes intermixed with thorns and nettles. When I asked whether I was in hell, the people said it was a lower earth just above hell.

I then proceeded in the direction of each of the clamors in turn. Going first to the place where they were crying, "Oh, how just!" I saw a gathering of people who in the world had been judges swayed by partiality and gifts. Going next to the place where they were crying, "Oh, how learned!" I saw a gathering of people who in the world had been reasoners. And going third to the place where they were crying, "Oh, how wise!" I saw a gathering of people who in the world had been confirmers.

[2] I turned back from these, however, to the first place, where the judges were who were swayed by partiality and gifts and who were proclaimed as just. There, over to one side, I saw a kind of amphitheater, built out of bricks and having a roof of black tiles; and I was told that they called it the Tribunal. It had three entrances opening into it on the north side, and three more on the west side, but none on the south or east sides - an indication that their judgments were not judgments having to do with justice but arbitrary rulings.

Inside I saw in the middle of the amphitheater a fireplace, into which the keepers of the hearth were throwing torches covered with sulfur and pitch. Shafts of light flickered out from these on to the plastered walls and formed silhouetted images of birds of the evening and night. At the same time, this fireplace, and the shafts of light flickering out into silhouettes of these images, were representations of their judgments, reflecting their ability to illumine the issues in any case with colored hues and to shape them as they pleased.

[3] After a half-hour had passed, I saw some older and younger men entering in gowns and robes; and laying aside their caps, they seated themselves at tables, ready to sit in judgment. I then heard and observed how skillfully and cleverly they avoided any appearance of favoritism, turning their judgments into semblances of justice, and this to the point that they themselves viewed injustice as nothing other than just, and justice, conversely, as unjust. Their persuasions in regard to these matters were apparent to the eye from their faces and discernible to the ear from their comments.

I was given at that point enlightenment from heaven, which enabled me to perceive in each case whether the rulings were in accordance with the law or not; and I saw to what lengths they went to camouflage injustice and give it the guise of justice, picking out from the laws some one that might support them and drawing the rest to their side through clever reasonings.

After rendering their judgments, the judges would have their verdicts conveyed out to their clients, friends and supporters; and to repay them for their favor, these would cry out for some distance along the road, "Oh, how just! Oh, how just!"

[4] I afterwards spoke with angels of heaven about these events and told them some of the things I had seen and heard. The angels said to me that judges like that appear to others as though endowed with an exceptional keenness of understanding, when in fact they do not have the least inkling of what is just and fair.

"If you take away their partiality for one side or the other," they said, "they sit on their benches as mute as statues, saying only, I agree, I go along with this person or I go along with that person. That is because all their judgments are prejudgments, and their prejudgment pursues each case from beginning to end with a biased one-sidedness. Consequently they see only the side which involves a friend. Every point that is against him they move to the periphery; and if they take it up again, they entangle it in reasonings, as a spider does its prey in the threads of its web - and so destroy it.

"That is why, if they do not follow the web of some prejudgment of theirs, they do not have any inkling of the law. They have been examined to see whether they might have some inkling of it, and it was found that they did not. The inhabitants of your world will be surprised that such is the case, but tell them it is a truth investigated by angels of heaven.

"Since these judges lack any sight of justice," they continued, "in heaven we view them as being not human but monsters, whose heads are shaped by elements of partisanship, their breasts by elements of injustice, and their feet by matters of confirmation - with only the soles of their feet being formed by matters of justice, which they step on and trample into the ground if these do not favor some friend of theirs.

"However, you will see for yourself how they look to us from heaven, for their end is near."

[5] And lo, suddenly then the ground opened, so that tables after tables went tumbling down, and they and their whole amphitheater were swallowed up. And they were cast into caverns and made prisoners there.

Then the angels said to me, "Would you like to see them now?"

And behold, in respect to their faces they appeared as though made of burnished steel. In respect to their bodies from the neck to the loins they looked like figures carved out of stone, dressed in leopard skins. And in respect to their feet they looked like serpents. I also saw the lawbooks, which they had had lying on their tables, turned into playing cards. And now, instead of judging, they were given the task of processing pigments into cosmetics with which to paint the faces of harlots and so turn them into beauties.

[6] After seeing this, I was ready to go on to the other two gatherings, to the one where the people were merely reasoners, and to the other where they were merely confirmers. But at that point the angels said to me, "Rest a while. You will be given angels from the society just above those places to accompany you. Through them you will receive light from the Lord, and you will see some astonishing sights."

  
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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 #162

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162. The fourth experience 1 .

A dispute arose among some spirits, whether anyone can see any truth on a matter of theological dogma in the Word, unless he is led to it by the Lord. They all agreed that no one can do this except by Divine guidance, because

A man cannot take anything unless it is given him from heaven, John 3:27.

So the argument was about whether anyone can do this, if he does not directly approach the Lord.

One party asserted that the Lord should be directly approached, because He is the Word. The other party held that the truth of doctrine is also seen when God the Father is directly approached. So the dispute centred on this preliminary point, whether any Christian is allowed to approach God the Father directly, and thus go over the Lord's head; and whether this is not improper and rash boldness and insolence. For the Lord says that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). But they left this point aside and said that man can see the truth of doctrine from the Word by his own natural enlightenment; but this view was rejected. So they insisted that it can be seen by those who pray to God the Father. A passage from the Word was read to them, and then they went down on their knees and prayed God the Father to enlighten them. About the passage read to them from the Word they said that certain things were true, when in fact they were untrue. This happened so many times they became tired of it, and at last admitted that they were unable to tell. However, the other party who directly approached the Lord were able to see the truth, and they told the others.

[2] When this dispute had been decided, some people came up out of the abyss, who looked at first like locusts, but later on like tiny people. They were those who in the world had prayed to God the Father, and convinced themselves of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. They were the same people as are described in Revelation (Revelation 9:1-11). They said that they could see in a clear light the doctrine that man is justified by faith alone without the actions prescribed by the Law, and that they could prove this from the Word. They were asked what faith this was, and they answered: 'Faith in God the Father.' But when they had been examined, they were told from heaven that they did not know a single truth of teaching from the Word. They retorted that they could still see their truths bathed in light.

Then they were told that they saw them by a deceptive light. 'What,' they asked, 'is this deceptive light?' They were told that deceptive light is that which comes from proving what is not true; it corresponds to the light enjoyed by owls and bats, who look upon darkness as light and light as darkness. This was proved to them by the fact that when they looked up to heaven, the source of true light, they saw only darkness, and when they looked down to the abyss from which they had come they saw light.

[3] This proof made them angry, and they said it showed that light and darkness have no real existence, but it is merely the condition of the eye that causes us to call light light and darkness darkness. However, it was shown that their light was the deceptive light which comes from proving what is not true; and that their light was only an activity of their minds arising from the fire of longings, of the same sort as the light enjoyed by cats, whose burning appetite for mice makes their eyes shine by night in cellars like candles.

On hearing this they said angrily that they were not cats or like them, since they could see if they wished. But then they went away, because they were afraid of being asked why they did not wish to see, and plunged into their abyss. The people there and those like them are also called by the angels owls and bats, as well as locusts.

[4] When they met their companions in the abyss and related that the angels had told them that 'we do not know any truth of teaching, not a single one,' and called them owls, bats and locusts, there was a riot. 'Let us pray God,' they said, 'to allow us to go up and we will give a clear demonstration that we possess many truths of teaching, which the archangels themselves will acknowledge.' Since they prayed to God, permission was granted, and they went up, to the number of three hundred.

When they appeared above ground, they said: 'In the world we were well-known and famous, because we knew and taught the secrets of justification by faith alone; and our proofs of this not only allowed us to see the light, but also to see it as a glittering sunbeam, and now we see it in the same way in our cells. Yet we have heard from our companions who visited you that this light is not light, but darkness, because you allege we have no truth of teaching from the Word. We know that every truth in the Word shines, and we have believed that that was what produced the glittering effect when we meditated profoundly on these secrets of ours. We shall therefore demonstrate that we have a vast supply of truths from the Word.'

'Do we not,' they said, 'possess this truth, that there is a Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that we ought to believe in the Trinity? Do we not possess this truth, that Christ is our redeemer and saviour? Do we not possess this truth, that Christ alone is righteousness, and He alone has merit, and it is wrong and impious if anyone wishes to attribute to himself any of Christ's merit and righteousness? Do we not possess this truth, that no mortal can do of his own accord any spiritual good, and that all good which is good in itself is from God? Do we not possess this truth, that there exist meritorious good and hypocritical good, and that these forms of good are evil? Do we not possess this truth, that none the less good deeds should be done? Do we not possess this truth, that there exists faith, that one ought to believe in God, and that everyone has life in accordance with his belief? We have many truths besides from the Word. Can any of you deny a single one of them? Yet you said that we in our debates do not possess any truth, not a single one. Are you not unjustified in casting such reproaches at us?'

[5] But they received the reply: 'All the statements you quoted are in themselves true, but you have falsified them; by deriving them from a false principle you make them false. We shall give you a visual demonstration that this is so. Not far from here there is a place where the light pours down directly from heaven; in the middle there is a table, and when a piece of paper is placed on it which has a truth from the Word written on it, the paper is caused by the truth written on it to shine like a star. So write your truth on a piece of paper, put it on the table, and you will see.'

They did so and gave it to the custodian, who put it on the table and said to them: 'Go to a distance and watch the table.' They went away and watched, and suddenly the paper shone like a star. Then the custodian said: 'You see that what you wrote on the paper are truths; but come closer and fix your gaze on the paper.' They did so, and suddenly the light went out, and the paper became black as if it had been covered with soot from a chimney. 'Touch the paper with your hands,' the custodian went on, 'but be careful not to touch the writing.' On their doing so, the paper burst into flame and was burnt up. When they saw this, they were told: 'If you had touched the writing, you would have heard an explosion and would have burnt your fingers.'

Then they were told by those who were standing behind: 'You have seen now that the truths which you have misused to prove your secrets about justification are in themselves truths, but in your hands they have became falsified.' Then they looked up, and heaven appeared to them like blood, and later on like total darkness. In the eyes of the angelic spirits these people appeared some like bats, some like owls, some like horned owls. So they fled away to their regions of darkness, which in their eyes shone with a deceptive light.

[6] The angelic spirits present were surprised because previously they had known nothing of that place and the table it contained. Then a voice came to them from the southern quarter which said: 'Come this way and you will see something even more wonderful.' So they went and entered a room, the walls of which shone as if made of gold, and there too they saw a table on which was laid a copy of the Word, surrounded by precious stones in a heavenly pattern. The custodian angel said: 'When the Word is opened, a light shines out from it of indescribable brightness, and at the same time the precious stones give a rainbow effect above and around the Word. When an angel from the third heaven comes near, the rainbow appears above and around the Word on a red background; when an angel comes from the second heaven and looks at it, the rainbow appears on a blue background; when an angel from the lowest heaven comes and looks, the rainbow appears on a white background. When a good spirit comes and looks, there is a variegated effect of light like marble.' They were given a visual demonstration of these effects. The custodian went on to say: 'If anyone approaches who has falsified the Word, first of all the radiance disappears; and if he comes close and fixes his gaze on the Word, the surroundings change to the colour of blood. Then he is warned to go away, as it is dangerous.'

[7] However, a certain person who in the world had been a leading writer on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, came boldly up saying, 'When I was in the world, I did not falsify the Word. Together with faith I also upheld charity, and I taught that a person in a state of faith, in which he acts charitably and does what charity requires, is renewed, regenerated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I also taught that there is no such thing as solitary faith, that is, separated from good deeds, just as there is no good tree without fruit, no sun without light, and no fire without heat. I also criticised those who claimed that good deeds were not necessary. Moreover I paid great attention to the Ten Commandments and to repentance, and so made a remarkable application of everything in the Word to my tenets about faith, which still I showed and proved to be the means of salvation.'

Thus confident of his claim not to have falsified the Word he approached the table, and despite the angel's warning touched the Word. There was a sudden burst of fire and smoke from the Word, and a loud explosion was heard which threw him into a corner of the room, where he lay for some time as if dead. The angelic spirits were surprised at this, but they were told that this leader had gone farther than the rest in praising the good deeds of charity as the product of faith; but still he had not put into this category any but political deeds, what are also called moral and civic duties, which need to be performed for the world's sake and one's prosperity there, and have very little to do with salvation. He had also imagined the existence of invisible activity by the Holy Spirit, quite unknown to the person concerned, which is engendered in his faith when he is in that state.

[8] The angelic spirits held a discussion about the falsification of the Word, and agreed that falsifying the Word consists in taking truths from it and using them to prove untrue propositions; this is done by taking truths from the Word out of context and murdering them. For instance, this happens if one uses all the truths mentioned above by the people from the abyss to support the present-day faith, and if one explains them in the light of that faith. It will be shown later that that faith is impregnated with false ideas. Or again, if anyone takes from the Word this truth, that one should show charity, and do good to one's neighbour; if anyone then uses it to prove that these things should be done, but not in order to be saved, since all the good a person does is not really good, because it is a way of seeking merit, that man is dragging that truth from the Word out of context and butchering it. For the Lord in His Word lays the duty on everyone who wants to be saved of loving his neighbour and doing good to him from love. It is the same with the other truths.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated with minor changes from Apocalypse Revealed 566.

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

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