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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 #505

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505. The third experience. 1

I once heard a noise as of two mill-stones grinding together. I approached the sound, and it ceased. I saw a narrow doorway leading downwards and at an angle towards a building with a vaulted roof; it had a number of rooms each divided into small cells. In each of the cells sat two people collecting passages from the Word in support of justification by faith alone; one collected the passages and the other wrote them out, and they took turns to do this.

I went up to one cell which was near the entrance and asked: 'What are you collecting and writing out?'

'Passages,' they said, 'about the act of justification or faith in action, the faith which is the real one, and justifies, quickens and saves. It is the leading doctrine of the church in our part of Christendom.'

'Tell me,' I said to him then, 'some sign of that act, when that faith is introduced into a person's heart and soul.'

'The sign of that act,' he answered, 'is at the moment when a person smitten with grief at the thought of being damned, and being in a state of contrition, thinks about Christ taking away the damnation imposed by the law, confidently grasps this merit of His, and keeping this in his thoughts approaches God the Father and prays.'

[2] 'The act does so take place,' I said, 'and there is this moment. But how am I to understand,' I asked, 'what is said about this act, that nothing on man's part assents to it, any more than he would assent if he were a block of wood or a stone? Man, as it is said, with regard to that act can begin nothing, will or understand or think nothing, perform no act or contribute to any joint act, or fit or adjust himself. Tell me how this squares with your assertion that the act arises at the time when a person thinks about the enforcement of the law, about the taking away of his damnation by Christ, about the confidence with which he seizes Christ's merit, and with these thoughts in mind approaches God the Father and prays. Surely all of these are acts done by the person?'

'Yes,' he said, 'but they are not done by him actively, but passively.'

[3] 'How,' I answered, 'can anyone think, have confidence and pray passively? If you take away his activity and co-operation, do you not also take away his capacity to receive, and so everything is lost together with the act itself? What then does your act become but something purely imaginary, what is called a point of argument? I hope that you do not follow certain people in believing that such an act only takes place with those who are predestined, and know nothing of the faith being poured into them. They could just as well play at dice to determine whether faith was poured into them or not. Therefore, my friend, you should believe that man as regards faith and charity acts of himself under the Lord's guidance, and without this act on his part this act of faith of yours, which you called the leading doctrine of the church in Christendom, is no more than Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt, which rings as pure salt when struck with a scribe's quill or with his fingernail (Luke 17:32). I have said this because you are making yourselves with regard to this act like such statues.'

When I said this, he took hold of the lamp-stand to hurl it with all the force in his hand in my face. But the lamp suddenly went out and he threw it in his companion's face, while I went away amused.

Footnotes:

1. This passage is repeated with slight modifications from Apocalypse Revealed 484-486.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #333

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333. The second experience.

Some time later I heard again from the lower earth the same cries as before 'How learned, how learned!' On looking around to see who was there, I found myself in the presence of angels from the heaven exactly above the people who were shouting 'How learned!'

When I talked to them about the shouting, they said that these were learned people who only argue whether a thing exists or not, and rarely reach the thought that it is so. 'They are therefore like winds which blow and pass on, or like bark around trees that have no heartwood, or like almond shells with no kernel, or like the peel around fruits with no flesh inside. For their minds are devoid of interior judgment, and merely coupled to the bodily senses. So if the senses themselves are unable to judge, they can reach no conclusions. In short, they are creatures of their senses, and we call them logicmongers. We call them this because they never reach any conclusions, but they pick up anything they hear and argue whether it exists, continually speaking for and against. Nothing gives them more pleasure than attacking truths and by subjecting them to argument tearing them in pieces. These are the people who consider themselves learned beyond anyone in the world.'

[2] On hearing this I begged the angels to take me down to visit them. So they took me down to a hollow, from which steps led down to the lower earth. We went down and followed the sound of shouting 'How learned!' There we found some hundreds of people standing in one place stamping on the ground. I was surprised at this and asked: 'Why are they standing like that stamping on the ground? They might,' I added, 'make a hole in the ground like that.'

The angels smiled at this and said: 'They seem to stand in one place because they never think about anything being so, but only whether it exists, and this they argue about. When thought makes no further progress, they seem merely to trample and wear out one clod of earth without advancing.'

The angels went on: 'Those who arrive in this world from the natural one, and are told that they are in a different world, form groups in many places, and try to find out where heaven and hell are, and likewise where God is. But even after being taught this, they still begin reasoning, debating and arguing whether God exists. They do so because at the present time so many people in the natural world are nature-worshippers, and when the talk turns to religion this is the subject they discuss among themselves and with others. This proposition and discussion rarely ends in an affirmation of faith in the existence of God. Afterwards these people associate more and more with the wicked; this happens because no one can do any good from the love of good, except by God's help.'

[3] After this I was taken to a meeting, and there I saw people with not unpleasing faces and well dressed. 'They look like this,' said the angels, 'in their own light, but if light is shed from heaven, there is a change in their faces, and in their clothes.' This happened, and their faces turned swarthy and they seemed to be wearing black sackcloth. But when this light was shut off, they returned to their previous appearance.

A little later I spoke with some of the people in the meeting and said: 'I have heard the crowd around you crying out "How learned!" So I should like, if I may, to enter into conversation with you about matters of the most profound learning.' 'Say anything you like,' they replied, 'and we will satisfy you.'

'What sort of religion,' I asked, 'will effect people's salvation?'

'We shall split up this question,' they said, 'into several, and we cannot give a reply until we have settled these. The order of discussion will be: (1) whether religion is of any importance; (2) whether or not there is such a thing as salvation; (3) whether one religion is more efficacious than another; (4) whether heaven and hell exist; (5) whether there is everlasting life after death; and many more questions.'

So I asked about the first question, whether religion is of any importance; and they started discussing it with many arguments. So I asked them to refer it to the meeting, which they did. The agreed reply was that this proposition requires so much investigation that it would not be finished before evening. 'Could you,' I asked, 'finish it within a year?' One of them said it could not be finished in a hundred years. 'So,' I said, 'in the meantime you have no religion, and since salvation depends upon it, you have no idea of salvation, no belief in it or hope for it.'

'Wouldn't you like us,' he replied, 'to prove first whether religion exists, what it is, and whether it is of any importance? If it exists, it will be for the wise too; if it does not, it will be only for the common people. It is well known that religion is called a bond; but the question may be asked, "For whom?" If it is only for the common people, it is not really of any importance; but if it is for the wise, then it is.'

[4] On hearing this I said: 'You are anything but learned, since you can think of nothing but whether it exists, and argue this in either direction. Can anyone be learned, unless he knows something for certain, and advances to that conclusion, just as a person advances step by step, and in due course achieves wisdom? Otherwise you do not so much as touch truths with your finger-tips, but drive them further and further from your sight. Therefore reasoning only whether it exists is like arguing about a hat without wearing it, or about a shoe without putting it on. What can come of this, except ignorance whether anything exists, whether anything is more than an idea, and so whether salvation exists, or everlasting life after death, whether one religion is better than another, or whether heaven and hell exist? You cannot have any thoughts on these subjects, so long as you are bogged down at the first step and pound the sand there, unable to put one foot in front of the other and make progress. Take care that, while your minds stand in the open outside the court, they do not inwardly grow ossified and turn into pillars of salt.'

With these words I left them, and they were so incensed they threw stones after me. Then they looked to me like carvings, totally devoid of human reason. I asked the angels what was their fate. They said that the worst of them are plunged into the depths, and there they find a desert, where they are forced to carry loads. Since they can then make no reasonable utterance, they chatter and make idle remarks, Seen from a distance there they look like donkeys carrying loads.

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

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