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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

 

True Christian Religion #391

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391. The seventh experience.

I have become aware as the result of conversations in the spiritual world with many laymen and many clergy what desolation of the truth and theological poverty exists in the Christian world at the present time. There is such spiritual famine among the clergy that they hardly know anything beyond the existence of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the fact that faith alone saves. About the Lord Christ they know only the historical facts about Him related in the Gospels. The rest, however, of what either Testament of the Word teaches, as that the Father and He are one, that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, that He has all power in heaven and earth, that it is the Father's will that men should believe in the Son, and that he who believes in Him has everlasting life, and much else - all this is to them as unknown and remote as what lies on the ocean bed, or rather, what lies at the centre of the earth. When these statements are extracted from the Word and read, they stand as if listening but hear nothing. The words do not penetrate deeper into their ears than the sighing of the wind or the beating of a drum. The angels who from time to time are sent out by the Lord to visit the Christian communities in the world of spirits, that is, below heaven, complain bitterly. They say that such is their stupidity and as a result the darkness under which they labour in matters relating to salvation that it is almost like listening to a talking parrot. Even their learned men say that in spiritual matters and those relating to God they do not understand more than so many statues.

[2] An angel once told me of a conversation he had with two clerics, one whose faith was separated from charity and another whose faith was not so separated. With the one whose faith was separated from charity the conversation ran like this.

'Friend, what are you?' 'I am a Christian of the Reformed church,' he replied. 'What is your doctrine and thus your religion?' 'Faith,' he answered. 'What is your faith?' said the angel. 'My faith,' he replied, 'is that God the Father sent the Son to take upon Himself the damnation of the human race, and by this means we are saved.' Then he asked him, 'What more do you know about salvation?' He replied that salvation is achieved by that faith alone. Next he said, 'What do you know about redemption?' He replied that it was accomplished by the passion on the cross, and that Christ's merit is imputed by means of that faith. Next, 'What do you know about regeneration?' He replied that it is the result of that faith. 'Say what you know about love and charity.' He replied that they are the same as that faith. 'Tell me what you think about the Ten Commandments and the remainder of the Word.' He replied that they are contained in that faith. Then he said: 'So you will do nothing?' 'What can I do?' he replied, 'I cannot of myself do any good which is good.' 'Can you,' he said, 'have faith of yourself?' 'I don't enquire into that,' he answered, 'I shall have faith.' Finally he said, 'Do you know anything at all more about salvation?' 'What more is there,' he replied, 'when salvation comes solely by means of that faith?' The angel then said, 'Your answers are like someone playing a single note on the flute; I hear nothing but faith. If you know that and nothing else, you know nothing. Go away and look for your companions.' So he went away and came upon them in a desert where there was no grass. He asked there why this was, and was told it was because they had no church among them.

[3] The angel's conversation with the one whose faith was linked with charity went thus. 'Friend, what are you?' 'I am a Christian of the Reformed church,' he replied. 'What is your doctrine and so your religion?' 'Faith and charity,' he replied. 'These,' said the angel, 'are two.' 'They cannot be separated,' he replied. 'What is faith?' he asked. 'Believing what the Word teaches,' he replied. 'What is charity?' 'Doing what the Word teaches.' 'Have you only believed these things or have you also done them?' 'I have also done them,' he replied. The angel from heaven looked at him and said, 'My friend, come with me and live with us.'

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #81

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81. While we were talking in sorrow about these things, suddenly a burst of light shone about us, dazzling my eyes. I looked up, therefore, and behold, the whole sky above us appeared lit up, and we heard a glorification echoing across it in long succession from the east to the west.

Then the angel said to me, "The glorification you hear is a glorification of the Lord on account of His Advent, and it is coming from angels of the eastern and western heavens." (From the southern and northern heavens we heard only a polite murmur.)

Moreover, since he understood it all, the angel told me, first, that glorifications and celebrations of the Lord are taken from the Word, because then they come from the Lord, inasmuch as the Lord is the Word, in the sense that He is the essential Divine truth in the Word.

Then the angel said, "Specifically now, they are glorifying and celebrating the Lord with these words which were spoken by the prophet Daniel:

You saw iron mixed with miry clay; they will mingle together through the seed of man, but they will not cohere.... But (in those days) the God of heaven will make to rise a kingdom which for ages shall not perish...; it shall crush and consume all these kingdoms, while it shall stand for ages. (Daniel 2:43-44)"

[2] After this I heard what seemed to be the sound of singing, and deeper in the east I saw a burst of light more brilliant than the first. And I asked the angel what they were glorifying there.

The angel said that they were glorifying the Lord with these words in Daniel:

I was seeing in the visions of night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, was One like the Son of man.... And to Him was given dominion...and a kingdom, and all peoples and nations...shall worship Him. His dominion is the dominion of an age, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one which shall not perish. (Daniel 7:13-14)

In addition, the angel said, they are celebrating the Lord with these phrases taken from the book of Revelation:

To (Jesus Christ) be glory and might.... Behold, He is coming with clouds.... (He is) the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last..., who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John...heard...(this from the Son of Man from out of) the midst of the seven lampstands.... (Revelation 1:5-7; 22:13; 1:8-13; taken also from Matthew 24:30-31)

[3] I looked again into the eastern sky, and a light shone over to the right, whose glow extended into the southern hemisphere. Hearing as well a sweet sound, I asked the angel what aspect of the Lord they were glorifying there.

The angel said they were quoting these words in the book of Revelation:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth.... And I...saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride...for her husband.... And (an angel) talked with me and said, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the spirit on to a great and high mountain, and showed me the...city, the holy Jerusalem.... (Revelation 21:1-2,9-10)

Also these words:

I, Jesus...am...the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride shall say, "Come!".... (And He said,) "I also am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:16-17,20)

[4] After these and other things, we heard a general glorification echoing across the sky from the east to the west and also from the south to the north, and I asked the angel, "What is happening now?"

He said they were quoting these verses from the Prophets:

Let all flesh know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer.... (Isaiah 49:26)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: "I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

It will be said in that day: "Behold, this is our God, whom we have waited for to free us. This is Jehovah, whom we have waited for." (Isaiah 25:9)

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of Jehovah...." ...Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength.... He will feed His flock like a shepherd. (Isaiah 40:3,10-11)

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given..., whose name shall be...Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Behold, the days will come..., and I will raise to David a righteous Branch, who shall reign, a King.... And this is His name...: JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16)

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

In that day...Jehovah shall become King over all the earth. In that day there will be one Jehovah and His name will be one. (Zechariah 14:8-9)

[5] When I heard these things and understood their meaning, as a result my heart leapt, and I went home filled with joy. And there, returning from the state of my spirit into a bodily state, I wrote down what I had seen and heard. To which I now add this, that following His Advent the Lord will revive conjugial love, such as it was among ancient peoples. For conjugial love comes only from the Lord, and it is found in people who are made spiritual by Him through His Word.

  
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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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