Through the Word ALONE is There a Connection of Heaven with Man

From a passage in Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... beasts were employed in the sacrifices in accordance with their signification ... all things in the three kingdoms of nature are representative of the spiritual and celestial things of the Lord's kingdom ... there are correspondences of all things ...

... not only all beasts, but also all things in the world, correspond, and according to their correspondences represent and signify spiritual and celestial things, and in the supreme sense the Divine things of the Lord; and from this to show the nature of the Ancient Churches, which were called representative churches; namely, that all their holy rites represented the things of the Lord and His kingdom, thus the things of love and faith in Him; and that by means of such things heaven was then conjoined with the man of the church; for the internal things were presented in heaven.

To the same end the Word of the Lord was given, for each and all things therein, down to the smallest jot, correspond and have a signification; consequently through the Word alone is there a connection of heaven with man.

That this is the case no one at this day knows; and therefore when a natural man reads the Word, and searches where the Divine lies hidden in it; and when on account of its ordinary style he does not find it in the letter, he first begins to hold it in low esteem, and then to deny that it has been dictated by the Divine Itself, and sent down through heaven to man; for he does not know that the Word is Divine by virtue of its spiritual sense, which is not apparent in the letter, but nevertheless is in the letter; and that this sense is presented in heaven when a man reads the Word with reverence; and that this sense treats of the Lord and His kingdom. It is these Divine things from which the Word is Divine, and by means of which holiness flows through heaven from the Lord down into the literal sense, and into the very letter itself. But so long as a man does not know what the spiritual is, he cannot know what the spiritual sense is, thus not what correspondence is. And so long as a man loves the world more than heaven, and himself more than the Lord, he does not wish to know or apprehend these things; although all the intelligence of ancient times was from this source, as is also the wisdom of the angels. The mystical secrets which many diviners have in vain busied themselves to trace in the Word, lie hidden solely in its spiritual sense.

(Arcana Coelestia 9280:2,3)

The Spiritual Sense Now Disclosed Surpasses All the Revelations that have hitherto been made since the Creation of the World

Selection from Invitation to the New Church ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is an arcanum from the spiritual world, that he who does not approach the Lord directly and immediately with the idea concerning Him, presence is not effected, and still less can he become a recipient of any communication. It is as if someone stands at the side, and appears in the dark. In like manner, no one can converse with another, unless he looks directly at him; communication is then granted when each reciprocally looks at the other. Thus, and not otherwise, do ideas enter into another; and if at the same time there is love, conjunction is effected. If anyone, therefore, approaches the Father immediately, He stands as it were at the side; and hence is unable to grant and to impart redemption; that is, He is unable to regenerate, and afterwards to save him.

The manifestation of the Lord in Person, and the introduction by the Lord into the spiritual world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all miracles; for we do not read anywhere in history that such interaction with angels and spirits has been granted from the creation of the world. For I am daily with angels there, even as I am in the world with men; and now for twenty-seven years. Evidences of this interaction are the books which I have published concerning Heaven and Hell, and also the Relations in my last work entitled True Christian Religion; further, what has been stated there concerning Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and concerning the inhabitants of many kingdoms; besides, the various evidences which are known in the world, and many other evidences besides which are not known. Say, who has ever before known anything concerning heaven and hell? Who has known anything concerning man's state after death? Who has known anything concerning spirits and angels, etc., etc.?

In addition to these most manifest evidences, there is the fact that the spiritual sense of the Word has been disclosed by the Lord through me; which has never before been revealed since the Word was written with the sons of Israel; and this sense is the very sanctuary of the Word; the Lord Himself is in this sense with His Divine, and in the natural sense with His Human. Not a single iota in this sense can be opened except by the Lord alone. This surpasses all the revelations that have hitherto been made since the creation of the world. Through this revelation a communication has been opened between men and the angels of heaven, and the conjunction of the two worlds has been effected; because when man is in the natural sense the angels are in the spiritual sense. See what has been written concerning this sense in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture [in True Christian Religion].

(Invitation to the New Church 42 - 44)

Why the Spiritual Sense of the Word has Now been Disclosed

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are many reasons why the spiritual sense of the Word has now been disclosed.

• First, because the churches in the Christian world have falsified all the sense of the letter of the Word, and this even to the destruction of the Divine truth in heaven, by which heaven has been closed up. In order, therefore, that heaven may be opened it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense is the Divine truth such as it is in heaven. For through the Word there is the conjunction of man with the Lord, and thus with heaven. When the Word is falsified even to the destruction of its genuine truth the conjunction perishes, and man is separated from heaven. In order, therefore, that he may again be conjoined with heaven, Divine truth such as it is in heaven has been revealed; and this has been confirmed by the spiritual sense of the Word, in which is that Divine truth.
  
  
• The second reason is that the falsities that have inundated and devastated the church can be dissipated only by means of the genuine truth laid open in the Word. Falsities and the evils therefrom and evils and the falsities therefrom can be seen in no other way than from truths themselves. For so long as genuine truths are not present, falsities and evils appear as in a kind of light. This light they have from confirmations by reasonings from the natural man, and by the sense of the letter explained and applied according to the appearances before that man. But when genuine truths are present, then first falsities and evils appear; for the light of heaven, which is in genuine truths, dissipates the delusive light of falsities and turns it into darkness.
  
  
• The third reason is, that, by means of the Divine truths of the Word that are in its spiritual sense, the New Church, which is meant by "the Holy Jerusalem" in Revelation, may be conjoined with heaven. For the Word is conjunction; but conjunction is effected only when man perceives the Word in a similar way as the angels perceive it.

(Apocalypse Explained 950:2)

One True Love - One True Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is in everyone's power very well to know that no life is possible without some love, and that no joy is possible except that which flows from love.

Such however as is the love, such is the life, and such the joy: if you were to remove loves, or what is the same thing, desires - for these are of love - thought would instantly cease, and you would become like a dead person, as has been shown me to the life.

The loves of self and of the world have in them some resemblance to life and to joy, but as they are altogether contrary to true love, which consists in a man's loving the Lord above all things, and his neighbor as himself, it must be evident that they are not loves, but hatreds, for in proportion as anyone loves himself and the world, in the same proportion he hates his neighbor, and thereby the Lord. Wherefore true love is love to the Lord, and true life is the life of love from Him, and true joy is the joy of that life. There can be but one true love, and therefore but one true life, whence flow true joys and true felicities, such as are those of the angels in the heavens.

(Arcana Coelestia 33)

The Angelic Idea of The Creation of The Universe by The Lord

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The angelic idea of the universe created by the Lord is as follows. God is the center, and He is MAN; and if God were not MAN creation would not have been possible; and the Lord from eternity is that God.

Of creation: The Lord from eternity, that is, God, by His Divine proceeding created the universe and all things in it; and as the Divine proceeding is life itself, all things have been created from life and by means of life. The Divine proceeding that is nearest to the Lord appears before the angels as a sun; this appears to their sight fiery and flaming; this is so because the Divine proceeding is the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, and these so appear at a distance. (The angels add that the Divine proceeding is what the ancients represented by golden or shining and pure circles about the head of God, which modern painters still retain from the ancient idea.) They said that from that sun as a great center proceed circles, one after another and one from another even to the last where their end is subsisting in rest. These circles, of which one is from another and one after another, appearing as spread out in breadth and length, are spiritual atmospheres, which are filled with the light and heat from their sun, and through which the light and heat extend themselves to the last circle; and in this last circle by means of these atmospheres, and afterwards by means of the natural atmospheres from the sun of this world, the creation of the earth and all things on it which are for use was accomplished, and this creation is afterwards continued by generations from seeds in wombs or in eggs.

The angels who knew that the universe so created was a continuous work from the Creator even to ultimates, and that being a continuous work it depends upon the Lord, who is its common center and is moved and governed by Him as a single continuous chain, said that the First which proceeds is continued even to ultimates through discrete degrees, just as an end is continued through causes into effects; or like a producing agent and its products in a continued series; also that the continuation is not only in but also around from the First, and so from everything prior into everything posterior, even to the postreme; and thus that the First and the posterior from it exist together in their order in the postreme or ultimate.

From this continuity as a one they have their idea of the Lord, that He is the All in all, that He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, that He is infinite and eternal; and also their idea of the order according to which the Lord, through His Divine love and Divine wisdom, arranges, provides, and governs all things.

It was asked, "Whence, then, is hell?" They said, "From man's freedom, without which man would not be a man;" that man by that freedom broke the continuity in himself, which being broken a separation took place; and the continuity that was in man from creation became like a chain or a linked work which falls when the links above are broken or torn asunder, and it thenceforward hangs by slender threads. Separation or breaking was effected and is effected by the denial of God.

(Divine Wisdom XII Appendix)

Man Himself is the Origin of Evil

A Portion from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How could evil come into existence when from creation nothing but good had existed? That anything may come into existence it must have its origin. Good could not be the origin of evil, because evil is nothing of good for it is privative and destructive of good. And yet as it exists and is felt it is not nothing but is something. Say, then, whence comes this something after nothing.

... no one is good but God only, and that there is not anything good which in itself is good except from God. He therefore who looks to God, and wills to be led by God, is in good; but he who turns himself away from God and wills to be led of himself is not in good, for the good that he does is either for himself or for the sake of the world; thus it is either meritorious, or is simulated, or hypocritical. Whence it is plain that man himself is the origin of evil. Not that this origin was inherent in man from creation, but that by turning away from God he imposed it upon himself. That origin of evil was not in Adam and his wife, but when the serpent said:-

In the day that ye eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, ye shall be as God (Gen. 3: 5)

and because they then turned away from God and turned to themselves as to a god, they made in themselves the origin of evil. To eat of that tree' signified to believe that he knows good and evil and has wisdom of himself, and not from God.

... How could man turn himself away from God and turn to himself, when yet man can will, think, and therefore do nothing except from God? Why did God permit this?

Man was so created that all that he wills, thinks, and does appears to him just as if in himself and thus of himself. Without this appearance man would not be man, for he could not receive, retain, and as it were appropriate to himself anything of good and truth, or of love and wisdom. Whence it follows that without this, as it were living appearance, man would have no conjunction with God, and therefore no eternal life. But if from this appearance he induces on himself the belief that he does will, think, and therefore do good of himself, and not from the Lord, although it is in all appearance as if of himself, he then turns good into evil within him, and thus makes in himself the origin of evil. This was the sin of Adam.

... love without wisdom is love from man and not from the Lord. And this love, because it conjoins itself with falsities, does not acknowledge God, but itself as a god; and this it tacitly confirms by the faculty of understanding and of becoming wise, as if of himself which is implanted in him from creation. This love therefore is the origin of evil.

(Conjugial Love 444:a)

Use - Doing Good from Love by Wisdom

Extract from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... love, wisdom, and use, which are the three essentials that together make the one Divine essence; and that nothing but what is of the Divine essence can proceed from Him and flow into the inmost of man, which is called his soul; and that in their descent into the body these three are changed into what is analogous and correspondent. ...

Love and wisdom without use are but ideas of abstract thought, which also after some tarrying pass away as the winds. But in use the two are brought together and there make a one which is called real. Love cannot rest unless it is doing, for love is the active itself of life; nor can wisdom exist and subsist except from love and with it, while it is doing; and doing is use. We therefore define use to be doing good from love by wisdom. Use is the good itself. Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow in into the souls of men, it is evident why it is said that all good is from God; for everything done from love by wisdom is called good; and a use also is a thing done.

What is love without wisdom but something illusory? And what is love with wisdom without use but a breath of the mind?

But love and wisdom with use not only make the man, but also are the man. Yea, which will perhaps surprise you, they propagate man; for in the seed of man is his soul, in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, out of which a body is formed in the womb of the mother. This use is the supreme and the ultimate use of Divine love by Divine wisdom.

(Conjugial Love 183)