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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 #796

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796. Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin in the spiritual world.

I have held many conversations with these three leaders, who were the reformers of the Christian church, and thus I learned what has been the condition in which they lived from the beginning down to the present day. As for Luther, as soon as he arrived in the spiritual world, he was at once a keen propagator and defender of his dogmas, and as the numbers of his supporters coming from the earth increased, so did his zeal for those dogmas. He was given a house there similar to the one he had lived in while in the bodily life at Eisleben. In the middle of this he set up a slightly raised platform, where he took his seat. The door was open to admit listeners, whom he arranged in rows, the strongest supporters nearest to him, and those less favourable behind him. Then he spoke continuously, from time to time allowing questions, in order to be able to begin again by picking up the thread of the discourse he had just finished.

[2] As a result of this general support he finally adopted a false conviction; this is so potent in the spiritual world that no one can resist it or speak against what it prescribes. But because this was a kind of incantation as used by the ancients, he was forbidden to go on talking seriously on the basis of that conviction, and after that he taught as before from memory and at the same time the use of his understanding. A conviction of this sort which is a kind of incantation wells up from self-love. This ends up by making a person so disposed that, when anyone contradicts him, he not only attacks the subject under debate, but the other person himself.

[3] He lived like this up to the Last judgment, which took place in the spiritual world in 1757. A year later he was moved from his first house to another, at the same time moving into a different state. On hearing that I, although in the natural world, spoke with those who were in the spiritual world, he was one of a number who came to see me. After some questions had been put and answered, he perceived that the present time is the end of the former church and the beginning of the new church foretold by Daniel's prophecy, and also by the Lord Himself in the Gospels. He also grasped that it is this new church which is meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation, and by the everlasting gospel which the angel flying in the midst of heaven announced to dwellers upon earth (Revelation 14:6). He became very indignant and abused me; but as he grasped that there was a new heaven, which was and is being made from those who acknowledge the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth, as His words in Matthew 28:18 state, and noticing that the size of his audience grew less day by day, he stopped being abusive, and then came closer to me and began to talk with me in a more intimate fashion. Once he had been convinced that he had drawn his principal dogma about justification by faith alone not from the Word, but from his own intelligence, he allowed himself to be instructed about the Lord, charity, true faith, free will and so on to redemption, all of this from no source but the Word. Finally when he had been convinced, he began to take a favourable view, and more and more to convince himself of the truths on which the new church is being founded.

[4] At this time he was with me daily, and then, whenever he recalled as being those truths, he began to laugh at his previous dogmas, as being something completely opposite to what the Word says. I heard him say: 'You should not be surprised that I seized upon faith alone as justifying, shut off charity from its spiritual essence and also took away from people all free will in spiritual matters, not to mention other things which hang like hooks from a chain on faith alone, once it is accepted. My aim was to make a split with the Roman Catholics, and there was no other way to achieve and accomplish this aim. I am not surprised therefore that I myself went astray, but I am surprised that one madman could drive so many others mad.' He glanced round here at some dogmatic writers who had been famous in his time, faithfully following his teaching, for failing to see the contradictions contained in Holy Scripture, evident though they were.

[5] The examining angels told me that this leader was in a better position to be converted than many others who had convinced themselves of justification by faith alone, because in childhood, before he started making the reformation, he had absorbed the dogma of the preeminence of charity. This was why both in his writings and his sermons he gave excellent teaching about charity. It is to be deduced from these facts that his belief in justification was implanted in his external natural man, not rooted in his internal spiritual man. The case is quite different with those who while young convince themselves that there is no spirituality in charity; and this also happens automatically, when justification by faith alone is well grounded upon arguments.

[6] I talked with the prince of Saxony with whom Luther had been in the world. He told me how he had often criticised him, in particular for separating charity from faith, and declaring faith and not charity as the means to salvation, when Holy Scripture not only links them as the two universal means to salvation, but Paul too puts charity above faith, saying that there are three things, faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity (1 Corinthians 13:13). Luther, however, replied every time that he could do no other because of the Roman Catholics. This prince is among the blessed.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #731

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731. 1 I once saw an angel flying under the eastern heaven holding a trumpet to his mouth with his hand, and sounding a blast towards the north, the west and the south. He was wearing a cloak which trailed behind him as he flew. He wore a sash studded with rubies and sapphires so that it flamed and shone. He flew head first, and alighted gently on the ground near where I was. On landing he walked upright on his feet, going in different directions, and then on seeing me came towards me. I was in the spirit, and in that state was standing on a hill in the southern quarter.

When he was near, I spoke to him and asked: 'What is happening now? I heard the sound of your trumpet, and saw you come down through the air.'

'I have been sent,' the angel replied, 'to summon the most famous for their learning, the most perceptive minds and the names most renowned for wisdom, who come from Christian lands and are in this region, to meet together on this hill, where you are now standing, and to speak their minds, stating what, when in the world, they had thought, understood and regarded as wisdom on the subject of heavenly joy and everlasting happiness.

[2] 'The reason for my mission is that some new arrivals from the world, who have been admitted to our heavenly community in the east, have reported that not a single person in the whole of Christendom knows what heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are, and so what heaven is. My brethren and colleagues were very surprised at this and told me to go down, make proclamation and summon the wisest people in the world of spirits, the place where all mortals are first gathered together on leaving the natural world, so that we can be informed by a number of voices, whether it is true that Christians are in such dense darkness and deep ignorance about the life to come. Wait a little while,' he said, 'and you will see the groups of wise men arriving here; the Lord will prepare a hall for their meeting.'

[3] I waited and after half an hour I saw two parties coming from the north, two from the west, and two from the south. The angel with the trumpet took them into the hall which had been prepared, and there they occupied the places assigned to them in accordance with the quarter they came from. There were six groups or parties; there was a seventh from the east, but the light rendered them invisible to the rest. When they were assembled, the angel revealed the reason they had been summoned, and asked the groups in turn to set forth their wisdom on the subject of heavenly joy and everlasting happiness. Then each group formed a circle with faces turned in towards one another, so that they could recall the ideas they had had about it in the previous world, discuss them, and after discussion could report on them.

Footnotes:

1. The passage 731-752 is repeated from Conjugial Love 2-25.

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

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