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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

 

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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #655

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655. To this I will append the following account:

I spoke with some of the spirits meant by the dragon. And one of them said to me, "Come with me and I will show you what pleases our eyes and hearts."

Then he took me through a dark forest and over a hill, from which I could view the pleasures of the dragon spirits. And I saw an amphitheater built in the form of a circle, with sloping tiers of benches extending up all around on which spectators were sitting. Those who sat on the lowest benches looked to me at a distance like satyrs and priapi, some of them with a cloth covering their private parts, and some of them naked without one. On the benches above them sat whoremongers and harlots. So they appeared to me from their behavior.

The dragon spirit then said to me, "Now you will see our sport." And I saw what looked like calves, rams, ewes, kids and lambs brought into the arena of the circus, and after they were all there, a gate opened and I saw what looked like young lions, panthers, leopards and wolves rushing upon the flock and savagely attacking them. They tore them to pieces and slaughtered them. And after that bloody carnage the satyrs spread sand over the site where the slaughter took place.

[2] The dragon spirit said to me then, "These are our sports, which please our hearts."

But I replied, "Get away from me, you demon! In a little while you will see this amphitheater turned into a lake of fire and brimstone."

He laughed and left me. And wondering to myself afterward why the Lord permits such things, I received in my heart the answer, that they are permitted as long as spirits are in the world of spirits; but that when their time in that world is over, such theatrical scenes are turned into dreadful ones in hell.

[3] Everything that I saw was a sight induced by the dragon spirits through beguilements. There were no calves, rams, ewes, kids or lambs, therefore, but those spirits made genuine goods and truths of the church to so appear, goods and truths that they hate. The young lions, panthers, leopards and wolves were manifestations of the lusts in those spirits who looked like satyrs and priapi. Those without a cloth over their private parts were people who believed that evils are not seen in the eyes of God, while those with a cloth are people who believed that evils are seen, but do not condemn, provided they have faith. The whoremongers and harlots were people who falsified the Word's truth, for licentiousness symbolizes the falsification of truth.

Everything in the spiritual world appears at a distance in accordance with its correspondence, and when these correspondences take manifest form, in objects like those of natural ones, we call them representations of spiritual entities.

[4] I later saw those spirits leaving the forest, with the dragon spirit surrounded by the satyrs and priapi, followed by their lieutenants and camp followers, who were the whoremongers and harlots. The troop grew as it went, and I was given then to hear what they were saying among themselves. They were saying that they saw a flock of sheep and goats in a meadow, and that it was a sign that they were approaching one of the Jerusalem cities where charity is primary. And they said, "Let us go and seize that city, throw out its inhabitants, and plunder their goods!"

They went to it, but it had a wall around it, with angels as guards upon the wall. So then they said, "Let us take it by trickery. Let us send in an artful person skilled in casuistry, who can make black white and white black, and color the reality of any subject."

So the spirits found a certain expert in the metaphysical art, who could turn concepts of things into considerations of terms and hide actual realities under strings of words, and so fly away like a hawk with its prey under its wings. They told him what to say to the inhabitants of the city, that they were people who shared the inhabitants' religion and should be admitted.

Going to the city gate he knocked, and when it was opened, he said that he wished to speak with the wisest person in the city. So he was allowed in and taken to a certain man, and he addressed the man then, saying, "My brethren are outside the city and ask to be let in. They share your religion. You and we both make faith and charity to be the two essential ingredients of religion. The only difference is that you say charity is primary and faith its effect, while we say faith is primary and charity its effect. What does it matter which one is called primary, when we believe in both?"

[5] The city's wise man replied, "Let us not speak about this matter by ourselves, but do so in the presence of a number of others, to serve as arbiters and judges. Otherwise no decision will result."

And at that he summoned some others, and the dragon spirit's emissary repeated to them what he had said before.

Then the city's wise man responded, "You said that it is the same whether one takes charity to be the primary concern of the church, or faith, provided one agrees that the two together form the church and its religion. And yet the difference is as the difference between something prior and something subsequent, between a cause and its effect, between a principal cause and an instrumental cause, between an essential component and a manner of expression.

"I speak so to you, because I have observed that you are an expert in the metaphysical art, an art that we call casuistry, and that some people call mumbo jumbo. But let us put these terms aside. The difference is as the difference between something above and something below. Indeed, if you would believe it, it is as the difference between heaven and hell. For that which is primary forms the head and breast, while that which is its effect forms the feet and the soles of the feet.

"But let us first agree on what charity is and what faith is - that charity is the love's affection for doing good to the neighbor for God's sake, and for the sake of salvation and eternal life, and that faith is confident thought regarding God, salvation and eternal life."

[6] However, the emissary said, "I grant that that is what faith is, and I also grant that charity is, as you say, an affection for God's sake, because it conforms with His commandment, but not that is an affection for the sake of salvation and eternal life."

Whereupon the city's wise man said, "Let it be as you say, provided it is for God's sake."

Following this agreement the city's wise man said, "Is not affection the primary thing and thought its effect?"

To which the dragon spirit's emissary answered, "No, it is not."

But he was told in reply, "You cannot deny it. A person is moved to think by his affection, is he not? Take away the affection. Can you form any thought? The case is entirely the same as if you were to take the sound out of speech. If you were to take away any sound, could you speak a word? The tone is also a matter of affection, while the words are a matter of thought, for affection produces the tone and thought the words. The case is also like that of a flame and its light. If you take away the flame, does not the light die?

"So it is with charity and faith, charity being an affection, and faith a matter of thought. Can you not comprehend, then, that the primary element is everything in the secondary one, even as sound is in speech? And from this you can see that if you do not make primary that which is primary, you do not possess the second element. Consequently, if you take faith, which is in second place, and put it in first place, you will appear no otherwise in heaven than as a person upside down, with his feet planted upward and his head pointed down. Or you will look like a clown turned upside down and walking on his hands. Since people like you will appear so in heaven, what then are your good works constituting charity but the kind that a clown might do with his feet, seeing that he cannot do them with his hands? As a consequence your charity is natural and not spiritual, as you yourself see, because it is turned upside down."

[7] The emissary understood this, for every devil can understand truth when he hears it, even though he cannot retain it, because when his affection for evil returns, it casts out thought of truth.

After that, then, the city's wise man described with many illustrations what faith is like when it is accepted as primary, saying that it is merely natural, that it is simply knowledge devoid of any spiritual life, and that it is consequently not faith. "For your charity," he said, "is nothing but a natural affection, and the only kind of thought that springs from a natural affection is natural thought, which is what constitutes your faith.

"I might almost say, too," he continued, "that in your merely natural faith there is scarcely any other spiritual life than in your knowledge of the Mongol empire, of the diamond mine there, or of its emperor's wealth and court."

When the dragon's emissary heard this, he angrily departed and reported to his companions outside the city. And when they heard that he had been told that charity is an affection for doing good to the neighbor for God's sake and for the sake of salvation and eternal life, they all cried out, "That's a lie!"

And the dragon spirit himself said, "What an outrage! All good works that constitute charity - if done for the sake of salvation, are they not merit-seeking?"

[8] The spirits then said to one another, "Let us summon here more of our colleagues, and let us lay siege to this city. Let us make ladders, scale the wall and attack them at night, and throw out those proponents of charity."

But when they attempted this, there suddenly appeared what looked like fire from heaven which consumed them. In fact, however, the fire from heaven was a manifestation of their anger, owing to their hatred of the city's inhabitants, because those inhabitants cast faith out of first place into second place. It appeared to them as though they were consumed by fire because hell opened beneath their feet and swallowed them.

Events similar to this occurred in many places at the time of the Last Judgment, and this is the meaning of the following depiction in the book of Revelation:

(The dragon) will go out to lead astray the nations which are in the four corners of the earth..., to gather them together for war... And they went up over the breadth of the land and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from God out of heaven and consumed them. (Revelation 20:8-9)

  
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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.

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