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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 #232

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232. The second account:

Some time later, I again heard from the land below the same cries as before, "Oh, how learned!" and "Oh, how wise!" So I looked around to see what angels were then present, and lo, they were angels who lived in the heaven just above the people who were crying out, "Oh, how learned!" I therefore spoke to them about the clamor, and the angels said that the people acclaimed as learned there were the sort who only reason about whether a thing is so or not and rarely think that it is.

"Consequently they are like gusts of wind," they said, "which blow and pass away, or like coverings of bark around trees which have no core, or like shells around almonds without a kernel, or like rinds around fruits without any flesh. For their minds lack any inner judgment and are connected only with their physical senses. If the senses themselves are inadequate to form a judgment, therefore, they can reach no conclusion. In a word, they are merely sense-oriented, and by us are called reasoners.

"We call them reasoners because they never reach any conclusion. Instead they take up whatever they hear and argue about whether it is so, constantly contradicting themselves. They like nothing more than to attack actual truths and thus tear them apart by turning them into matters of dispute. They are the sort of people who think they are more learned than all others in the world."

[2] When I heard this, I asked the angels to take me down to them. So they took me to a cave which had steps leading down to a lower earth. We then descended and followed in the direction of the clamor "Oh, how learned!" And suddenly we saw several hundred people standing in the same place, trampling the soil with their feet. Being astonished by this at first, I asked why they were standing together like that and stamping away at the soil. "At that rate they may use their feet to make a hole in the ground," I said.

The angels chuckled at this and said, "They appear as standing there like that because on any subject they regard nothing as being so, but only consider whether it is and make it a matter of debate. So, since their thought goes no further, they appear only to tread and wear away the same patch of ground without making any progress."

At that point I then went over to the gathering; and behold, they seemed to me to be people of not unhandsome appearance and dressed in elegant clothing. But the angels said, "That is how they seem in their own light; but if light from heaven flows in, their appearance changes, and also their clothing." This, too, actually happened; and then they appeared with dark faces, clothed in black sacks. However, when the light from heaven was taken away, they looked as they had before.

Shortly afterwards I spoke with some of them and said, "I heard the clamor of the crowd around you, crying 'Oh, how learned!' Allow me to explore with you, therefore, some discussion on subjects which are matters of the highest learning."

[3] To which they replied, "Name any subject you please and we will give you an answer."

So I asked, "What must the nature of a person's religion for him to be saved by it?"

In answer they said, "We need to divide this question into several parts, and we cannot give a reply before we come to a conclusion in regard to these. The first consideration must be whether there is anything to religion. Second, whether there is any salvation or not. Third, whether one religion is of any more avail than another. Fourth, whether there is a heaven and a hell. Fifth, whether there is any eternal life after death. And many other considerations besides."

So I asked about the first, whether there is anything to religion. And they began to discuss it, advancing a number of arguments over whether there is any religion, and whether there is anything to what is called religion.

I then asked them to refer the question to the whole gathering, which they did. And the collective response was that the question as put required so much investigation that they could not resolve it by the end of the evening.

"Could you resolve it in a year?" I asked.

And one of them said it could not be resolved in a hundred years.

"But meanwhile," I said, "you are without religion."

To which he replied, "Do we not have to show first whether there is any religion, and whether there is anything to what is called religion? If there is, religion must exist for the wise as well. If not, it must exist only for the common people. We all know that religion is said to be a tie that binds, but the question is, for whom? If only for the common people, then in essence there is nothing in it. If for the wise as well, then there is something in it."

[4] On hearing this I said to them, "You are not learned at all, because you can only speculate about whether a thing is so without settling it either way. Who can become learned without knowing anything for certain, and without making any progress towards it in the way that any person progresses, step by step, and so gradually into wisdom? Otherwise you do not lay so much as a fingernail on truths but remove them further and further out of sight.

"If you reason only about whether a thing is so, is that not like reasoning about the fit of a hat which is never tried on, or about the fit of a shoe which no one wears? What other consequence results but your not knowing whether anything is anything - including, indeed, whether there is any salvation, whether there is any eternal life after death, whether one religion is of any more avail than another, whether there is a heaven and a hell. You cannot have any thought about such things so long as you remain stuck at the first step and keep pounding away at the same piece of ground there without putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.

"You had better take care that while your minds are standing outside the temple of judgment like that, they do not harden within and turn into pillars of salt, and you become the companions of Lot's wife."

[5] So saying I turned and went, and in anger they hurled stones after me. And at that point they appeared to me like figures carved out of stone, having nothing of human reason in them.

I then asked the angels about their fate; and the angels said, "Their fate is to be let down into an abyss, and there into a wilderness, where they are forced to carry packs. Moreover, because they are then unable to utter anything from their reason, they prattle and talk nonsense; and from a distance there they look like donkeys bearing burdens."

  
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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 #161

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161. The third experience 1 .

Once in the spiritual world I heard a noise like a mill; it was in the northern region. To begin with I wondered what it was, but then I remembered that a mill and milling mean seeking support for doctrine from the Word. So I approached the place where I had heard the noise, and when I came close the noise disappeared. Then I saw a covered area above ground, the approach to which was through a cave. On seeing this I went down and went inside.

There was a room there in which I saw an old man sitting among his books, holding a copy of the Word in front of him and looking out passages in it in support of his doctrine. Slips of paper were lying around, on which he had copied out supporting passages. In the next room were scribes, who were collecting the slips and writing out what was on them on clean sheets of paper. I asked first about the books he had around him.

He said that they were all on the subject of justifying faith. 'Those from Sweden and Denmark are profound, more profound those from Germany, still more profound those from Britain, and the most profound are those from Holland.' He added that they differed in various respects, but all agreed on the subject of justification and salvation by faith alone. He went on to say that he was now gathering support from the Word for the first tenet of justifying faith, that God the Father withdrew His favour from the human race on account of its wrong-doing, and God therefore needed in order to save men to receive satisfaction, be reconciled, propitiated and have as mediator someone who would take upon himself the righteous condemnation; and there was no way this could be done except through His only Son. When this had been done, the way was opened up to God the Father for His sake, for we say: 'Father, have mercy on us for the sake of the Son.' 'I see,' he said, 'and have long done so, that this is in accordance with all sound reason and Scripture. How else could anyone approach God the Father, except through faith in the merit of the Son?'

[2] On hearing this I was amazed that he asserted it to be in accordance with sound reason and Scripture, when in fact it is contrary to both, as I told him plainly. This provoked an outburst of zeal and he retorted: 'How can you talk like that?'

So I stated my opinion and said: 'Is it not contrary to sound reason to think that God the Father withdrew His favour from the human race, reproved it and cut off communication with it? Surely Divine favour is an attribute of the Divine Essence? So withdrawing His favour would be withdrawing His Divine Essence, and that would mean ceasing to be God. Surely God cannot become estranged from Himself? Believe me, favour on God's part is both infinite and eternal. God's favour can be lost on man's part, if he fails to accept it, [but never on God's part]. 2 If the favour shown by God were taken away, it would be the end of the whole of heaven and the whole human race. Therefore favour on God's part is shown permanently and for ever, not only to angels and men, but even to the devils in hell. Since this is in accordance with sound reason, why do you say that the sole approach to God the Father is through faith in the Son's merit, when in fact God's favour ensures that the approach is perpetually open?

[3] 'But why do you talk about approaching God the Father for the sake of the Son, rather than through the Son? Is not the Son the mediator and saviour? Why do you not approach the mediator and saviour Himself? Is He not God and Man? On earth does anyone approach directly any emperor, king or prince? Surely he finds a chamberlain to introduce him? Do you not know that the Lord came into the world so that He should introduce us to the Father, and that it is impossible to approach Him except through the Lord? This approach is perpetually open when you directly approach the Lord Himself, because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Now consult Scripture and you will see that this is in accordance with it, and that your approach to the Father is contrary to it, just as it is contrary to sound reason. I tell you too, it is presumptuous to go up to God the Father, except through Him who is in the Father's bosom, and who alone is with Him. Have you not read John 14:6?'

On hearing this the old man was so enraged he jumped up from his chair and shouted to his scribes to throw me out; and when I had immediately of my own accord gone out, he threw after me out of the door the book which he happened to be holding in his hand. The book was the Word.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Apocalypse Revealed 484.

2. These words are inserted from the earlier use of the passage in Apocalypse Revealed 484.

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

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