The Lord's Presence According to Reception

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The distance between the [spiritual] sun and the angels in the spiritual world is an appearance according to reception by them of Divine love and Divine wisdom.

All fallacies which prevail with the evil and the simple arise from appearances which have been confirmed. So long as appearances remain appearances, they are apparent truths, according to which every one may think and speak; but when they are accepted as real truths, which is done when they are confirmed, then apparent truths become falsities and fallacies. For example: It is an appearance that the sun is borne around the earth daily, and follows yearly the path of the ecliptic. So long as this appearance is not confirmed it is an apparent truth, according to which any one may think and speak; for he may say that the sun rises and sets and thereby causes morning, midday, evening, and night; also that the sun is now in such or such a degree of the ecliptic or of its altitude, and thereby causes spring, summer, autumn, and winter. But when this appearance is confirmed as the real truth, then the confirmer thinks and utters a falsity springing from a fallacy. It is the same with innumerable other appearances, not only in natural, civil, and moral, but also in spiritual affairs.

It is the same with the distance of the sun of the spiritual world, which sun is the first proceeding of the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. The truth is that there is no distance, but that the distance is an appearance according to the reception of Divine Love and Wisdom by the angels in their degree. ... distances, in the spiritual world, are appearances ... the Divine is not in space; ... the Divine, apart from space, fills all spaces. If there are no spaces, there are no distances, or, what is the same, if spaces are appearances, distances also are appearances, for distances are of space.

The sun of the spiritual world appears at a distance from the angels, because they receive Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in the measure of heat and light that is adequate to their states. For an angel, because created and finite, cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light, such as is in the sun; if he did he would be entirely consumed. The Lord, therefore, is received by angels in a degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. The following may serve for illustration. An angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the angels of the third heaven; for if he ascends and enters their heaven, he falls into a kind of swoon, and his life as it were, strives with death; the reason is that he has a less degree of love and wisdom, and the heat of his love and the light of his wisdom are in the same degree as his love and wisdom. What, then, would be the result if an angel were even to ascend toward the sun, and come into its fire? On account of the differences of reception of the Lord by the angels, the heavens also appear separate from one another. The highest heaven, which is called the third, appears above the second, and the second above the first; not that the heavens are apart, but they appear to be apart, for the Lord is present equally with those who are in the lowest heaven and with those who are in the third heaven. That which causes the appearance of distance is not in the Lord but in the subjects, that is, the angels.

That this is so can hardly be comprehended by a natural idea, because in such there is space, but by a spiritual idea, such as angels have, it can be comprehended, because in such there is no space. Yet even by a natural idea this much can be comprehended, that love and wisdom (or what is the same, the Lord, who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom) cannot advance through spaces, but is present with each one according to reception. That the Lord is present with all, He teaches in Matthew 28:20, and that He makes His abode with those who love Him, in John 14:23.

As this has been proved by means of the heavens and the angels, it may seem a matter of too exalted wisdom; but the same is true of men. Men, as to the interiors of their minds, are warmed and illuminated by that same sun. They are warmed by its heat and illuminated by its light in the measure in which they receive love and wisdom from the Lord. The difference between angels and men is that angels are under the spiritual sun only, but men are not only under that sun, but also under the sun of this world; for men's bodies can begin and continue to exist only under both suns; but not so the bodies of angels, which are spiritual.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 108 - 112)

The Conjoining Medium

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... the presence of the Lord with the man ...

The Lord speaks with every man, for whatever a man wills and thinks that is good and true, is from the Lord. There are with every man at least two evil spirits and two angels. The evil spirits excite his evils, and the angels inspire things that are good and true. Every good and true thing inspired by the angels is of the Lord; thus the Lord is continually speaking with man, but quite differently with one man than with another. With those who suffer themselves to be led away by evil spirits, the Lord speaks as if absent, or from afar, so that it can scarcely be said that He is speaking; but with those who are being led by the Lord, He speaks as more nearly present; which may be sufficiently evident from the fact that no one can ever think anything good and true except from the Lord.

The presence of the Lord is predicated according to the state of love toward the neighbor and of faith in which the man is. In love toward the neighbor the Lord is present, because He is in all good; but not so much in faith, so called, without love. Faith without love and charity is a separated or disjoined thing. Wherever there is conjunction there must be a conjoining medium, which is nothing else than love and charity, as must be evident to all from the fact that the Lord is merciful to everyone, and loves everyone, and wills to make everyone happy to eternity. He therefore who is not in such love that he is merciful to others, loves them, and wills to make them happy, cannot be conjoined with the Lord, because he is unlike Him and not at all in His image. To look to the Lord by faith, as they say, and at the same time to hate the neighbor, is not only to stand afar off, but is also to have the abyss of hell between themselves and the Lord, into which they would fall if they should approach nearer, for hatred to the neighbor is that infernal abyss which is between.

The presence of the Lord is first possible with a man when he loves the neighbor. The Lord is in love; and so far as a man is in love, so far the Lord is present; and so far as the Lord is present, so far He speaks with the man. Man knows no otherwise than that he thinks from himself, whereas he has not a single idea, nor even the least bit of an idea, from himself; but he has what is evil and false through evil spirits from hell, and what is good and true through angels from the Lord. Such is the influx with man, from which is his life and the interaction of his soul with the body.

(Arcana Coelestia 904)

Their Endeavor and Intention to Subjugate Those Who are in Good and Truth

Selections from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is the Lord alone also who fights in the men who are in the combats of temptations, and who overcomes. Man from his own power can effect nothing at all against evil or infernal spirits; for they are so connected with the hells that if one were overcome, another would rush in, and so on forever. They are like the sea which presses upon every part of a dike; and if the dike should be broken through by a cleft or a crack, the sea would never cease to burst through and overflow, until nothing was left standing. So would it be with man unless the Lord alone sustained in him the combats of temptations.

(Arcana Coelestia 1692:2)

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And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve. [Exodus 1:13]  That this signifies an intention to subjugate, is evident from the signification of "making to serve," as being subjugation, here the intention to subjugate, because they are in the continual endeavor to subjugate, but in no wise prevail against the good; from the signification of the "Egyptians," as being separated memory-knowledges which are opposed to the truths of the church ... and from the signification of the "sons of Israel," as being the church .... Hence it is evident that by "the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve" is signified the intention to subjugate by those who are in separated memory-knowledges which are opposed to the truths of the church.

As regards the intention to subjugate, such as exists with the evil who are from hell, I have also been given to know this. Such is their endeavor and intention to subjugate those who are in good and truth that it cannot be described; for they make use of all malice, all cunning and fraud, all deceit, and all cruelty, so great and of such a nature that if these were told in part only, hardly anyone in the world could believe it; so cunning and artful are their devices, and so execrable. In a word, these infernals are of such a nature that they cannot possibly be resisted by any man, nor even by any angel, but by the Lord alone. The reason why they are possessed with such an endeavor and intention is that all their delight of life, thus their life itself, consists in doing evil; and therefore nothing else occupies their thoughts, consequently they intend nothing else. They are quite unable to do what is good, because this is repugnant to them: if they do what is good, it is for the sake of self, thus is done to self.

From such spirits the hells are at this day immensely increased, and wonderful to say, especially from those who are within the church, on account of the cunning, deceit, hatred, revenge, and adultery, which flourish there more than elsewhere; for within the church cunning is now esteemed ingenious, and adultery honorable, and they who deem otherwise are laughed at. Its being so within the church at this day is a sign that its last time is at hand, for "Except there be an end, no flesh would be saved," according to the Lord's words in Matt. 24:22; because all evil is contagious, and infects, as lees do the lump, thus at last all.

(Arcana Coelestia 6666)