Charity and Faith with Man

Selection from New Jerusalem Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No one can know what faith is in its essence, unless he knows what charity is, because where there is no charity there is no faith, for charity makes one with faith as good does with truth. For what man loves or holds dear, this to him is good, and what man believes, this to him is truth; whence it is plain that there is a like union of charity and faith, as there is of good and truth....

The union of charity and faith is also like that of the will and the understanding with man; for these are the two faculties which receive good and truth, the will receiving good and the understanding truth; thus, also, these two faculties receive charity and faith, since good is of charity and truth is of faith. Everyone knows that charity and faith are with man, and in him, and because they are with man, and in him, they must be in his will and understanding, for all the life of man is therein, and from thence. Man has also memory, but this is only the outer court, where those things are collected together which are to enter into the understanding and the will. Thence it is evident that there is a like union of charity and faith, as there is of the will and the understanding....

Charity conjoins itself with faith with man, when man wills that which he knows and perceives; to will is of charity, and to know and perceive is of faith. Faith enters into man, and becomes his, when he wills and loves that which he knows and perceives; meanwhile it is without him.

Faith does not become faith with man, unless it becomes spiritual, and it does not become spiritual, unless it becomes of the love; and it then becomes of the love, when man loves to live truth and good, that is, to live according to those things which are commanded in the Word.

(New Jerusalem Heavenly Doctrine 108-111)

The Word Being Opened to the Churches, and Afterwards Closed

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

(Matthew 22:35-40)

As regards the Word being opened to the churches, and being afterwards closed, the case is this: in the beginning of the setting up of any church, the Word is at first closed to the men of it, and is afterwards opened, the Lord so providing; and thus they learn that all doctrine is founded on the two commandments - that the Lord is to be loved above all things, and the neighbor as themselves.  When these two commandments are regarded as the end, the Word is opened; for all the Law and the Prophets, that is, the whole Word, so depend on these commandments that all things are derived from them and therefore all have reference to them.  And whereas the men of the church are then in the principles of truth and good, they are enlightened in everything they see in the Word; for the Lord is then present with them by means of angels, and teaches them (although they are unaware of this), and also leads them into the life of truth and good.

This may be seen also from the case of all churches, in that they were such in their infancy, and worshiped the Lord from love, and loved the neighbor from the heart.  But in process of time churches withdraw from these two commandments, and turn aside from the good of love and charity to the so-called things of faith, thus from life to doctrine; and insofar as they do this, so far the Word is closed.

(Arcana Coelestia 3773)

God Can Only Do Good

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

God's Omnipotence in the universe, with each and all things of it, proceeds and operates in accordance with the laws of His order. God is omnipotent because He has from Himself all power; while all others have power only from Him. His power and His will are one; and as He wills only what is good He can do nothing but what is good.

In the spiritual world no one is able to do anything contrary to his will; and this is derived from God, because His power and will are one. Moreover, God is good itself, therefore in His doing good He is in Himself, and to go out of Himself is impossible. Evidently, then, God's omnipotence must go forth and operate within the sphere of extension of the good; and this sphere is infinite.  For this sphere, [going forth] from the inmost, fills the universe and each and all things in it; and from the inmost rules the things which are without so far as they conjoin themselves with it in accordance with the laws of their own order; and if they do not conjoin themselves with it, it still sustains them, and by every endeavor labors to restore them to an order that is harmonious with the universal order, in which God Himself is in His omnipotence, and in accordance with which He acts. And when this is not accomplished they are cast out from Him; but even then He none the less sustains them from the inmost.

From this it is clear that the Divine omnipotence cannot by any means go forth from itself to a contact with any thing evil, or from itself promote any thing evil; for evil turns itself away, and in consequence evil is wholly separated from Him and is cast into hell, between which and heaven, where He is, there is a great gulf.

From these few statements it can be seen how deluded those are who think, and still more those who believe, and still more those who teach, that God can damn anyone, curse anyone, send anyone to hell, predestine any soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn Himself away from man, nor look upon him with a stern countenance. These and like things are contrary to His essence; and what is contrary to His essence is contrary to His very Self.

(True Christian Religion 56)