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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 #326

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326. To this I will append two narrative accounts. Here is the first:

After the question concerning the soul had been discussed in the school and answered, 1 I saw the people going out in order, the headmaster in front, after him the older men, with the five young men who had responded to the question in the midst of them, and after them the rest. As they left the building, they went around to the sides, where there were walkways surrounded by bushes. And gathering there, they broke up into small groups, all of them circles of young men conversing on matters of wisdom, with one of the wiser men from the balcony in each.

Seeing them from my place of lodging, I entered a state of the spirit and in the spirit went out to them. And there I went over to the headmaster, who a little before had posed the question concerning the soul.

When he saw me he said, "Who are you? As I watched you approaching on the way here, I was astonished to see that one minute you would pop into view, the next minute drop out of sight, so that one moment I would see you and suddenly then not. Surely you are not in the same life-state as our people."

Gently laughing at this I replied, "I am not a marionette, nor a chameleon, but I am one who alternates, being sometimes in your light and sometimes not, so that I am an alien and at the same time a native."

[2] At this the headmaster looked at me and said, "These are strange and extraordinary things you are saying. Tell me who you are."

So I said, "I live in the world in which you once lived and from which you have departed, which is called the natural world; and I live as well in the world into which you have come and in which you are now living, which is called the spiritual world. I am as a result in a natural state and at the same time a spiritual one - in a natural state when I am with people on earth, and in a spiritual state when I am with you. Moreover, when I am in a natural state, I am not visible to you; but when I am in a spiritual state, I am. To be as I am is something I have been given by the Lord.

"Being an enlightened man, you know that an inhabitant of the natural world does not see an inhabitant of the spiritual world, or vice versa. Therefore when I conveyed my spirit into my body, you did not see me; but when I conveyed it out of my body, you did.

"You also taught in your school exercise that you are souls, and that souls see souls because they are human forms. But you know that you did not see yourselves or your souls within your bodies when you were in the natural world. This fact is due to the difference that exists between something spiritual and something natural."

[3] When he heard me mention a difference between something spiritual and something natural, he said, "What is the difference? It is not like the difference between something more pure and something less so? So what is something spiritual but a purer form of something natural."

But I replied, "That is not what the difference is, but it is as the difference between something prior and something subsequent, between which there is no finite relationship. For the prior is in the subsequent, as a cause in its effect, and the subsequent exists from the prior, as an effect from its cause. That is why the one is not visible to the other."

To this the headmaster said, "I have reflected and ruminated on the difference, but so far in vain. I would like to have some concept of it."

[4] So I said, "You shall not only have a concept of the difference between something spiritual and something natural, but you will even witness the difference." Whereupon I spoke to him as follows:

"You are in a spiritual state when you are with your own people, but in a natural state with me; for you speak with your associates in spiritual language, the common language of every spirit and angel, whereas with me you speak in my native tongue. Indeed, every spirit or angel in speaking with a mortal person uses the person's customary language, thus speaking French with a Frenchman, English with an Englishman, Greek with a Greek, Arabic with an Arab, and so on.

"So then, to learn the difference between something spiritual and something natural in terms of languages, do the following: Go over to your associates, say something there and remember the words. Then with these memorized, come back and repeat them to me."

So he did as I said, and returned to me with the words in his mouth, but when he uttered them he did not know what any of them meant. The words were altogether strange and unfamiliar, being words not found in any language of the natural world.

After he repeated this experiment several times, it became clearly apparent to him that people in the spiritual world all speak a spiritual language which has nothing in common with any language of the natural world, and that every person comes automatically into use of that language after death. At the same time he also then discovered that the very intonation of spiritual language is so different from the intonation of natural language that the intonation of spiritual language, even when loud, is not at all audible to a natural person, nor the intonation of natural language to a spiritual person.

[5] After that I asked the headmaster and some others standing by to go over to their associates and write down some thought on a piece of paper, and with that piece of paper come back to me and read it. They did as I said, and they returned with the piece of paper in hand; but when they went to read it, they were unable to make out what any of it meant, since the writing consisted only of some alphabetic letters with curly lines over them, each of which carried some meaning connected with the subject. (Because every letter of the alphabet carries some meaning there, it is apparent from what origin the Lord is called the Alpha and the Omega.) 2 As they again and again withdrew, wrote and returned, they discovered that their writing included and contained a countless number of elements which no natural writing could ever express. But they were told that this is because a spiritual person thinks thoughts incomprehensible and inexpressible to a natural person, and these cannot descend or be put into any other form of writing or language.

[6] Then, because the others standing by were unwilling to believe that spiritual thought so far surpasses natural thought as to be inexpressible in comparison, I said to them, "Try an experiment. Go over into your spiritual association, think on some subject, and holding the thought come back and express it to me."

So they went, thought, held the thought, and came back; but when they went to express what they had thought, they could not. For they did not find any natural mental concept equivalent to any spiritual concept. So neither did they find any word to express their thoughts, since ideas of the mind take form as words in speech. At that they then began to withdraw and return, to prove to themselves that spiritual ideas were higher than natural ones, being inexpressible, ineffable and incomprehensible to the natural man. And because spiritual ideas are so transcendent, they began to say that spiritual ideas or thoughts compared to natural ones were the essences of ideas and the essences of thoughts, and that they therefore expressed the essences of qualities and the essences of affections; consequently that spiritual thoughts were the germs and origins of natural thoughts. It also became evident from this that spiritual wisdom was the essence of wisdom, thus unintelligible to any person of wisdom in the natural world.

They were then told from the third heaven that there is a still more interior or higher wisdom, called celestial, which has a similar relationship to spiritual wisdom as spiritual wisdom does to natural wisdom; and that these levels of wisdom flow in succession in accordance with the heavens from the Lord's Divine wisdom, which is infinite.

Footnotes:

1. This account follows on the one related in no. 315 above.

2. In Revelation 1:8,11, 21:6, 22:13. Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, in the language in which Revelation was written.

  
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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

 

Survey of Teachings of the New Church #120

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120. The third memorable occurrence taken from Revelation Unveiled. Since the Lord has allowed me to see amazing things in the heavens and below them, I have been commanded and am obligated to pass on what I have seen.

I saw a magnificent palace that had a chapel in its center. In the middle of the chapel there was a golden table that had the Word on it. Two angels were standing next to the table. Around the table there were three rows of chairs. The chairs in the first row were covered in pure silk of a purple color, the chairs in the second row in pure silk of a sky blue color, and the chairs in the third row in white cloth. High above the table a canopy was suspended beneath the ceiling. It gleamed so brightly with precious stones that it created an effect like a glowing rainbow [that appears] when the sky begins to clear after a rain shower.

Suddenly members of the clergy appeared, occupying all the chairs. They were all wearing the robes of their priestly ministry.

To one side there was a cabinet with an angel guard standing nearby. Inside the cabinet there were shining pieces of clothing laid out in a beautiful array.

[2] It was a council that had been called by the Lord. I heard a voice from heaven that said, “Discuss.”

The participants said, “About what?”

“About the Lord the Savior and about the Holy Spirit,” the voice said.

When they began thinking about these topics they had no enlightenment, so they prayed. Then a light flowed down from heaven that first lit up the backs of their heads, then their temples, and finally their faces.

Then they began. They started where they had been told to, with the first topic, the Lord the Savior. The first issue to be discussed was, “Who took on a human manifestation in the Virgin Mary?”

An angel standing next to the table where the Word lay read to them the following words in Luke:

The angel said to Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this take place, since I have not had intercourse?” The angel replied and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will descend upon you, and the power of the Highest will cover you; therefore the Holy One that is born from you will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:31, 32, 34, 35)

Then the angel read Matthew 1:20–25; he raised his voice when he read verse 25. In addition, he read many other things from the Gospels, such as Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 20:31; and other passages where the Lord in his human manifestation is referred to as the Son of God, and where from his human manifestation he calls Jehovah his Father. The angel also read from the Prophets where it is foretold that Jehovah himself is going to come into the world. Two of the latter passages were the following from Isaiah:

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him to set us free. This is Jehovah; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

A voice of someone in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare a pathway for Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. Behold, the Lord Jehovih is coming in strength. Like a shepherd he will feed his flock.” (Isaiah 40:3, 5, 10, 11)

[3] The angel said, “Jehovah himself came into the world and took on a human manifestation and by so doing redeemed and saved people; therefore in the Prophets Jehovah is called the Savior and the Redeemer.”

Then the angel read them the following passages:

“God is only among you; and there is no God except him.” Surely you are a hidden God, O God of Israel, the Savior. (Isaiah 45:14, 15)

Am not I Jehovah? And there is no God other than me. I am a just God, and there is [no] Savior other than me. (Isaiah 45:21, 22)

I am Jehovah, and there is no Savior other than me. (Isaiah 43:11)

I am Jehovah your God. You are to acknowledge no God other than me. There is no Savior other than me. (Hosea 13:4)

. . . so that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and your Redeemer. (Isaiah 49:26; 60:16)

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth is his name. (Isaiah 47:4)

Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah Sabaoth is his name. (Jeremiah 50:34)

. . . Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)

Thus says Jehovah your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am Jehovah your God.” (Isaiah 43:14; 48:17; 49:7; 54:8)

You, Jehovah, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

Thus says Jehovah your Redeemer: “I am Jehovah, who makes all things, doing so alone, by myself.” (Isaiah 44:24)

Thus says Jehovah the King of Israel, and Israel’s Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth: “I am the First and the Last, and there is no God other than me.” (Isaiah 44:6)

Jehovah Sabaoth is his name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. He will be called the God of the whole earth. (Isaiah 54:5)

Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous branch who will rule as king. And this is his name: Jehovah our Righteousness. (Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 33:15–16)

On that day Jehovah will become king over all the earth. On that day Jehovah will be one, and his name one. (Zechariah 14:9)

[4] With the support of all these passages, the clergy sitting in the chairs unanimously stated that it was Jehovah himself who took on the human manifestation, and that he did so in order to redeem and save humankind.

At that point, though, we heard a voice from Roman Catholics who had hidden behind the altar. The voice said, “How could Jehovah the Father become human? He is the creator of the universe!”

One of the clergy sitting in the second row of chairs turned and said, “Who then was the human manifestation?”

The man who had been behind the altar before, but was now standing beside it, said, “The Son from eternity.”

He received this reply: “In your confession the eternally begotten Son is the same as the creator of the universe. What is a Son or a God who is eternally begotten? How could the divine essence, which is one indivisible thing, be separated? How could one part of it come down and not the whole essence at once?”

[5] The second issue for discussion related to the Lord: “Surely then the Father and he are one as the soul and the body are one.”

They said that this would follow, because his soul was from the Father.

Then one of the clergy sitting in the third row of chairs read the following words from the statement of faith known as the Athanasian Creed: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and a human being. Yet he is not two, but one Christ. Indeed, he is one altogether; he is one person. Therefore as the soul and the body make one human being, so God and a human being is one Christ.”

The reader said, “The creed that contains these words has been accepted by the entire Christian world including Roman Catholics.”

The participants said, “What more do we need? God the Father and he are one as the soul and the body are one.”

They added, “As this is so, we see that the Lord’s human manifestation is divine because it is the human manifestation of Jehovah. We also see that we must seek help from the Lord’s divine-human manifestation. Only in this way, not in any other, can we have access to the divine nature that is called the Father.”

[6] The angel supported their conclusion with more passages from the Word, among which were the following in Isaiah:

A Child has been born to us; a Son has been given to us. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Abraham did not know us and Israel did not acknowledge us. You, Jehovah, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

And in John,

Jesus said, “Those who believe in me believe in the one who sent me; and those who see me see the one who sent me.” (John 12:44, 45)

Philip said to Jesus, “Show us the Father.” Jesus said to him, “Those who have seen me have seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:8, 9, 10, 11)

Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

Also,

All things that the Father has are mine and all things that I have are the Father’s. (John 16:15; 17:10)

And finally,

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

When the participants had heard this they all said with one voice and one heart, “The Lord’s human manifestation is divine. For us to gain access to the Father we have to go to his human manifestation, since this is how Jehovah God, who is the Lord from eternity, put himself in the world and made himself visible to human eyes. Through this he became accessible. Jehovah God also made himself visible and therefore accessible in a human form to the ancients; but back then he used an angel.”

[7] The next discussion focused on the Holy Spirit. First there was a disclosure of the way many people picture God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They picture God the Father sitting on high with the Son at his right hand. Both of them send out the Holy Spirit to enlighten and teach people.

Then a voice was heard out of heaven saying, “We do not support these mental images. Jehovah God is omnipresent, as everyone knows. If we know and acknowledge this, we also must acknowledge that Jehovah God is the one who enlightens and teaches us. There is no mediating God who is distinct from him as if they were two separate people, let alone a God who is distinct from two other gods. That earlier meaningless picture needs to be removed and this proper picture needs to be accepted. Then you will see this point clearly.”

[8] Then we again heard a voice from the Roman Catholics. They had hidden behind the altar in the chapel. The voice said, “What then is the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Word by the Gospel writers and Paul, by which so many learned clergy say they are led, especially in our denomination? Surely no one in the Christian world nowadays denies the existence of the Holy Spirit and its actions.”

One of the clergy in the second row of chairs turned and said, “You are saying that the Holy Spirit is a person on its own and a god on its own; but what is a ‘person’ going out and emanating from a person if not an influence going out and emanating? A person cannot go out and emanate from another person through yet another, but an influence can. To put it another way, a god going out and emanating from a god is actually a divine influence going out and emanating. One god cannot go out and emanate from another through yet another, but a divine influence can. The divine essence is one indivisible thing. And since the divine essence or the underlying divine reality is God, therefore there is one indivisible God.”

[9] After hearing that, the clergy sitting in the chairs unanimously concluded that the Holy Spirit is not a person on its own or a god on its own; it is the holy divine influence that goes out and emanates from the unique and omnipresent God, who is the Lord.

The angels who were standing by the golden table that held the Word responded to that by saying, “Good! Nowhere in the Old Covenant does it say that the prophets spoke the Word of the Holy Spirit. They spoke the Word of Jehovah the Lord. When the New Covenant speaks of the Holy Spirit, it means the divine influence that goes forth enlightening people, teaching them, bringing them to life, reforming them, and regenerating them.”

[10] After that another issue related to the Holy Spirit came up: “From whom does the divine influence meant by the Holy Spirit emanate? Does it emanate from the divine nature, which is called the Father, or from the divine-human manifestation, which is called the Son?”

While they were discussing this a light shone down on them from heaven. In that light they saw that the holy divine influence meant by the Holy Spirit emanates from the divine nature in the Lord through his glorified human manifestation, which is the divine-human manifestation. It is comparable to the situation with human beings. Our actions emanate from our souls through our bodies.

An angel who was standing by the table supported this point with the following passages from the Word:

The one whom the Father sent speaks the words of God; God has not given him the spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. (John 3:34, 35)

A shoot will go forth from the trunk of Jesse. The spirit of Jehovah will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and intelligence, the spirit of counsel and strength. (Isaiah 11:1, 2)

The spirit of Jehovah has been put upon him and is in him. (Isaiah 42:1; 59:19, 20; 61:1; Luke 4:18)

When the Holy Spirit comes, whom I will send to you from the Father . . . (John 15:26)

He will glorify me, because he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. That is why I said that he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:14, 15)

If I go away, I will send the Comforter to you. (John 16:7)

The Comforter is the Holy Spirit. (John 14:26)

There was not the Holy Spirit yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39)

After he was glorified, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

And in the Book of Revelation,

Who will not glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. (Revelation 15:4)

[11] The angel continued, “Since the Holy Spirit means the Lord’s divine influence that results from his divine omnipresence, when he told his disciples about the Holy Spirit that he was going to send to them from God the Father he also said, ‘I will not leave you orphans. I am going away and coming [back] to you; and on that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ (John 14:18, 20, 28). And just before he left the world he said, ‘Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the close of the age’ (Matthew 28:20).”

After reading these passages the angel said, “It is clear from these passages and many others in the Word that the divine influence called the Holy Spirit emanates from the divine nature in the Lord through his divine-human manifestation.”

In response the clergy sitting in the chairs said, “This is divine truth!”

[12] At the end the participants produced the following declaration: “From the discussions in this council, we have come to see clearly and to acknowledge as the sacred truth that the divine trinity exists in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ. The Trinity is made up of the divine nature as an origin called ‘the Father,’ the divine-human manifestation called ‘the Son,’ and the emanating divine influence called ‘the Holy Spirit.’ We proclaim then that ‘all the fullness of divinity dwells physically in Jesus Christ’ (Colossians 2:9). Therefore there is one God in the church.”

[13] After the events of this magnificent council came to an end, the participants stood up. The angel guarding the cabinet came over and brought shining clothing to each one of those who had been sitting in the chairs. The clothing was interwoven here and there with golden threads. The angel said, “Please accept these wedding garments.”

The participants were led in glory to the new Christian heaven, which is going to be connected to the church of the Lord on earth, which is the New Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:7, 8, 9:

One day that is known to Jehovah will not be day or night, because there will be light around the time of evening. On that day living waters will go forth from Jerusalem. Jehovah will become king over all the earth. On that day Jehovah will be one, and his name one.

THE END

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

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