Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
NO ONE IS REFORMED BY VISIONS OR BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD
IT IS OF THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE
MAN SHOULD ACT FROM FREEDOM
IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON
Visions are of two kinds, Divine and diabolical.Divine visions, which are produced (as has been said) by means of representations in heaven, are such as the prophets had, who were not in the body but in the spirit when they were in these visions; for visions can not appear to any one in the waking states of the body, When, therefore, they appear to the prophets they are said to have been "in the spirit," as is evident from the passages that follow.
Ezekiel says:-
Moreover, the spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision of God, in the spirit of God, into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up over me (10: 1, 24).Again —
that the spirit lifted him up between the earth and the heaven, and brought him in the visions of God to Jerusalem (8: 3, seq.).In like manner —
he was in the vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four living creatures which were cherubim (1 and 10).As also —
when he saw the new temple and the new earth, and the angel measuring them (40 - 48).
That he was then in the visions of God he says (40: 2, 26); and in the spirit (43: 5).In a like state was Zechariah —
When he saw a man riding among the myrtle trees (Zech. 1: 8, seq.)
When he saw four horns (1: 18)
and a man in whose hand was a measuring line (2: 1-3, seq.)
When he saw a lampstand and two olive trees (4: 1, seq.)
When he saw the flying roll and the ephah (5: 1, 6)
When he saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains, and horses (6: 1, seq.).In a like state was Daniel —
When he saw four beasts coming up from the sea (Dan. 7: 1, seq.)
When he saw the combat between a ram and a he-goat (8: 1, seq.).
That he saw these things in the vision of his spirit is stated (7: 1, 2, 7, 13; 8: 2; 10: 1, 7, 8)
that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in vision (9: 21).John, also, was in the vision of the spirit when he saw what he described in the Apocalypse: —
As when he saw seven lampstands, and in their midst the Son of man (1: 12-16)
When he saw a throne in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, and four animals which were cherubim round about it (4)
When he saw the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)
When he saw horses going out from the book (6)
When he saw seven angels with trumpets (8)
When he saw the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts going out of it (9)
When he saw the dragon, and its combat with Michael (12)
When he saw two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and the other out of the earth (13)
When he saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast (17)
And Babylon destroyed (18)
When he saw a white horse and Him who sat upon it (19)
And when he saw the new heaven and the new earth; and the Holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (21)
And when he saw the river of the water of life (22)
That he saw these things in the vision of the spirit is said (1: 10; 4: 2; 5: 1; 6: 1; 21: 1, 2)Such were the visions that appeared to them from heaven, not before the sight of the body but before the sight of the spirit. Such visions do not take place at the present day; if they did, they would not be understood, because they are produced by means of representations, each one of which is significative of the internal things of the church and the arcana of heaven.
Moreover, it was foretold by Daniel (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.
But diabolical visions have sometimes appeared, induced by enthusiastic and visionary spirits, who from the delirium that possessed them called themselves the Holy Spirit. But these spirits have now been gathered up by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others.
All this makes clear that by no other visions than those in the Word can one be reformed.
There are also fantastic visions: but these are mere delusions of an abstracted mind.
NO ONE IS REFORMED BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD
That no one is reformed by conversations with the dead is evident from the Lord's words respecting the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.for the rich man said: —
I pray thee, father Abraham, that thou wouldst send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. But he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one come to them from the dead they will repent. He answered him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead (Luke 16: 27-31).Conversation with the dead would have the same effect as miracles, namely, man would be persuaded and forced into a state of worship for a short time. But as man is thus deprived of rationality, and at the same time evils are shut in, this spell or internal bond is loosed, and the evils that have been shut in break out, with blasphemy and profanation. But this takes place only when some dogma of religion has been imposed upon the mind by spirits, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by any angel of heaven.
(from Divine Providence 134)