The Collecting, Separation, and Last Judgment

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Jesus spake this parable: The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. The servants of the father of the family came and said unto him, Lord, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. But the servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that going we collect them? But he said, Nay, lest haply while ye collect the tares ye root up at the same time the wheat with them. Rather let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Collect first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

And His disciples came unto Him, saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answering said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; and the seed are the sons of the kingdom; but the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that soweth them is the devil; while the harvest is the consummation of the age; and the reapers are angels. As then the tares are collected and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the consummation of the age. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall collect out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity, and shall send them into a furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43).

This parable teaches:
• that the "sower" means the Lord, who is here called "the Son of man"
• that the "reapers," or "those that reap," mean the angels
• that "the tares shall be cast into a furnace of fire and the good seed gathered into the barn" and that this could not be done until "the consummation of the age" (which signifies the last state of the church), "lest the wheat should be rooted up at the same time with the tares."

As this parable of the Lord contains arcana respecting the separation of the evil from the good, and the Last Judgment, it is important that its particulars should be explained —

• "The kingdom of the heavens" signifies the Lord's church in the heavens and on earth; for the church is in both.
• "The man who sowed good seed in his field" means the Lord as to the Divine truth, which is the Word, in the church
• "the man," who is called in the following verses "the Son of man," is the Lord as to the Word
• "good seed" is Divine truth
• "field" the church where the Word is.
• "While men slept his enemy came and sowed tares, and went away," signifies that while men are living a natural life, or the life of the world, evils from hell secretly, or while they are unconscious of it, introduce and implant falsities, "to sleep" signifying to live a natural life or the life of the world, since such a life is sleep as compared with spiritual life, which is wakefulness.
• The "enemy" signifies evils from hell, which influence that life when it is separated from spiritual life
• "to sow tares" signifies to insinuate and implant falsities
• "went away" signifies that it was done secretly and when they were unconscious of it.
• "But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also" signifies that when truth increased and brought forth good, falsities from evil were mingled with it
• "the blade springing up" signifying truth such as it is when it is first received
• "fruit" signifying good
• "tares" falsities from evil, here these mingled with truths.

• "The servants of the father of the family came and said unto him, Lord, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares?" signifies those who are in truths from good perceiving that falsities from evil have been mingled with them, and complaining
• "the Lord's servants" signifying those who are in truths from good
• "the father of the family" signifying the Lord as to truths from good ("father" the Lord as to good, and "family" the Lord as to truths)
• the "good seed," the "field," and the "tares," having the same signification as above.
• "And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this," signifies that such falsities were from evil in the natural man.
• "But the servants said to him, Lord, wilt thou then that going we collect the tares?" signifies the separation and casting out of falsities from evil before truths from good are received and increase.
• "But he said, Nay, lest haply while ye collect the tares ye root up at the same time the wheat with them," signifies that thus truth from good and its increase would also perish; for truths are mingled with falsities with the men of the church, and these cannot be separated and the falsities cast out until they are reformed.

• "Rather let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Collect first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn," signifies that the separation and casting out of falsities from evil cannot be effected until it is the last state of the church; since it is then that the falsities of evil are separated from the truths of good, and the falsities of evil are delivered up to hell, and the truths of good are conjoined with heaven, or what is the same, the men who are in them. This takes place in the spiritual world, where all who are of the church from its beginning to its end are in this way separated and judged.
• The "harvest" signifies the end or the last state of the church
• "to bind into bundles" signifies to conjoin together particular kinds of falsities from evil
• "to burn" signifies to deliver up to hell
• "to gather into the barn" signifies to conjoin with heaven.

• "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man" signifies the Divine truth from the Lord.
• "The field is the world" signifies the church everywhere.
• "The seed are the sons of the kingdom" signifies that the Divine truth is with those who are of the church.
• "The tares are the sons of the evil one" signifies falsities with those who are in evil.
• "The enemy that soweth them is the devil" signifies that their falsities are from evil, which is from hell.
• "The harvest is the consummation of the age" signifies the last time and state of the church.
• "The reapers are angels" signifies that the Divine truth from the Lord is what separates.
• "The Son of man shall send forth angels, and they shall collect out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling," signifies that the Divine truth from the Lord will remove those things that hinder the separation.
• "They that work iniquity" signifies those who live wickedly.
• "And shall send them into a furnace of fire" signifies into the hell where those are who are in love of self and in hatred and revenge.
• "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" signifies where there is what is direful from evils and falsities.
• "Then shall the just shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father" signifies that those who have done the Lord's commandments shall live in heaven in heavenly loves and their joys; those are called "just" who acknowledge the Lord and do His commandments. Such was to be the state of the angels after the Last Judgment because the superior power which had before been on the side of hell was then restored to heaven, which was a source of joy to the angels with unceasing increase.

It remains to give some explanation of the Lord's words respecting the separation of the evil from the good, namely,—

• "Rather let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Collect first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." This signifies the separation of the evil from the good when the Last Judgment is at hand. Why they were not separated before may be seen in the work on The Last Judgment, to which I will here add —

It is according to Divine order for things that must, in the end, be separated to grow in connection, and that when the end is reached, separation is easily and as it were spontaneously effected.

(from Apocalypse Explained 911)

A Look at Hereditary Evil

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

All the hereditary evil existing at the present day did not come from the first man, as is falsely supposed. For it is the Most Ancient Church that is treated of under the name of "man;" and when it is called "Adam" it signifies that man was from the ground, or that from being non-man he became man by regeneration from the Lord. This is the origin and signification of the name.

But as to hereditary evil, the case is this. Everyone who commits actual sin thereby induces on himself a nature, and the evil from it is implanted in his children and becomes hereditary. It thus descends from every parent, from the father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and their ancestors in succession, and is thus multiplied and augmented in each descending posterity, remaining with each person, and being increased in each by his actual sins, and never being dissipated so as to become harmless except in those who are being regenerated by the Lord. Every attentive observer may see evidence of this truth in the fact that the evil inclinations of parents remain visibly in their children, so that one family, and even an entire race, may be thereby distinguished from every other.

• Only by regeneration can heredity be eradicated —

And Jacob asked and said, Tell I pray thy name. And he said, Wherefore is this that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God faces to faces, and my soul is delivered. And the sun arose to him as he passed over Penuel, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the sons of Israel eat not the nerve of that which was displaced, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, even unto this day, because he touched in the hollow of Jacob's thigh the nerve of that which was displaced.  (Genesis 32:29-32)

• "because he touched in the hollow of Jacob's thigh the nerve of that which was displaced," is signified because they had a heredity which could not be eradicated by regeneration, because they would not allow this.

The signification of the "thigh," as being conjugial love, and consequently every heavenly and spiritual love); and because the "hollow of the thigh" is where there is the conjunction of conjugial love, and also of all heavenly and spiritual love, with natural good. Hence to "touch it," or to injure it so as to occasion halting, is to destroy the good which is of these loves, and as this happened to Jacob, it is signified that this nature passed from him to his posterity, and thus was hereditary. That the "nerve of that which was displaced" signifies falsity, here falsity from hereditary evil. 

It follows from this and from the series, that this heredity could not be eradicated from them by regeneration, because they would not allow this.

That they had such a heredity and that they could not be regenerated, is very evident from all that is related of them in the Word, and particularly from these passages in Moses:

Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all things that Jehovah hath done in your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; and Jehovah hath not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, even unto this day (Deut. 29:2, 4).

In the same:

I know the figment of the people which they do at this day, before I bring them into the land which I sware (Deut. 31:21).

And again:

I will hide My faces from them, I will see what is the last of them; for they are a generation of perversities, sons in whom is no truth. I would exterminate them, I would cause their memory to cease from man, were it not that I feared the indignation of the enemy. For they are a nation that perisheth in counsels, and there is no intelligence in them; for their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes are of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are hemlock, the clusters are bitter to them. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel head of asps. Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed in My treasures? (Deut. 32:20, 26-34)

and in many other places, especially in Jeremiah.

That this was signified by the "touch upon the hollow of Jacob's thigh," and his consequent lameness, is manifest in Hosea:

The controversy of Jehovah with Judah, to visit upon Jacob, according to his ways, and according to his works He will render to him; he supplanted his brother in the womb; in his grief he contended with God, and contended toward the angel, and prevailed; he wept and entreated him (Hos. 12:3-5).

where "to contend with God," in the internal historical sense, is to be urgent that the representative of a church should be with them. From this it is evident that they had such a heredity from Jacob himself, and the same might be shown from many more passages which must be passed over for the present.

As regards heredity specifically, it is believed in the church at this day that all hereditary evil is from the first parent, and that all are therefore condemned in regard thereto. But the case is not so. 

Hereditary evil derives its origin from everyone's parents and parents' parents, or from grandparents and ancestors successively. Every evil which they have acquired by actual life, even so that by frequent use or habit it has become like a nature, is derived into the children, and becomes hereditary to them, together with that which had been implanted in the parents from grandparents and ancestors. The hereditary evil from the father is more inward, and the hereditary evil from the mother is more outward. The former (from the father) cannot be easily rooted out, but the latter (from the mother) can. When man is being regenerated, the hereditary evil inrooted from his nearest parents is plucked up by the roots; but with those who are not being regenerated, or who cannot be regenerated, it remains. This then is hereditary evil. This is also evident to everyone who reflects, and also from the fact that every family has some peculiar evil or good by which it is distinguished from other families; and that this is from parents and ancestors is known. 

It is similar with the Jewish nation remaining at this day, which is evidently distinct from other nations, and is known from them, not only by its peculiar genius, but also by manners, speech, and face.

But what hereditary evil is, few know; it is believed to consist in doing evil; but it consists in willing and hence thinking evil; hereditary evil being in the will itself and in the thought thence derived, and being the very conatus or endeavor that is therein, and which adjoins itself even when the man is doing what is good. It is known by the delight that is felt when evil befalls another. This root lies deeply hidden, for the very inward form that receives from heaven (that is, through heaven from the Lord) what is good and true, is depraved, and so to speak, distorted; so that when good and truth flow in from the Lord, they are either reflected, or perverted, or suffocated. It is from this cause that no perception of good and truth exists at this day, but in place of it, with the regenerate, conscience - which acknowledges as good and true what is learned from parents and masters. 

It is from hereditary evil to love self more than others, to will evil to others if they do not honor us, to perceive delight in revenge, and also to love the world more than heaven; and from the same source come all the derivative cupidities or evil affections. Man is ignorant that such things are in hereditary evil, and still more that they are opposite to heavenly affections; and yet it is manifestly shown in the other life how much of evil from what is hereditary each one has drawn to himself by actual life, and also how far he has removed himself from heaven by evil affections from this source.

That hereditary evil could not be eradicated from the posterity of Jacob by regeneration because they would not allow it, is likewise manifest from the historicals of the Word; for they gave way in all the temptations in the wilderness as recorded by Moses: and also afterwards in the land of Canaan, whenever they did not see miracles; and yet those temptations were outward but not inward or spiritual. In respect to spiritual things, they could not be tempted, because as before shown they knew no internal truths, and had no internal good; and no one can be tempted except as to what he knows and what he has. Temptations are the veriest means of regeneration.

(from AC 313; 4317)

When Faith Becomes A Dead Affair

Selections from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A church is said to be corrupted when it acknowledges the Word and has a certain worship like that of a true church, but yet separates faith from charity, thus from its essential and from its life, whereby faith becomes a kind of dead affair; the result of which necessarily is that the church is corrupted.

What the men of the church then become, is evident from the consideration that they can have no conscience

Conscience that is really conscience cannot possibly exist except from charity

Charity is what makes conscience, that is, the Lord through charity. What else is conscience than not to do evil to anyone in anyway; that is, to do well to all in every way? Thus conscience belongs to charity, and never to faith separated from charity. If such persons have any conscience, it is a false conscience; and because they are without conscience, they rush into all wickedness, so far as outward bonds are relaxed. They do not even know what charity is, except that it is a word significant of something. And as they are without charity, they do not know what faith is. When questioned, they can only answer that it is a kind of thinking; some, that it is confidence; others, that it is the knowledges of faith; a few, that it is life according to these knowledges, and scarcely any that it is a life of charity or of mutual love. And if this is said to them, and opportunity is given them for reflection, they answer only that all love begins from self, and that he is worse than a heathen who does not take care of himself and his own family. They therefore study nothing but themselves and the world. Hence it comes to pass that they live in their Own.

Those who separate faith from charity and hence make worship consist in externals alone, cannot know what and whence is conscience, needs to be briefly shown.

- The Truths of Faith — The Lord Working in Charity -

Conscience is formed by means of the truths of faith, for that which a man has heard, acknowledged, and believed makes the conscience in him; and afterwards to act contrary to this is to him to act contrary to conscience, as may be sufficiently evident to everyone.

Unless it is the truths of faith that a man hears, acknowledges, and believes, he cannot possibly have a true conscience. For it is through the truths of faith (the Lord working in charity) that man is regenerated, and therefore it is through the truths of faith that he receives conscience — conscience being the new man himself.

From this it is evident that the truths of faith are the means by which this may take place, that is, that the man may live according to what faith teaches, the principal of which is to love the Lord above all things, and the neighbor as himself. If he does not so live, what is his faith but an empty affair, and a mere high-sounding word, or a thing that is separated from heavenly life, and in which when thus separated there is no possible salvation?

For to believe that no matter how a man lives, he may yet be saved provided he has faith, is to say that he may be saved if he has no charity, and no conscience (that is, if he passes his life in hatred, revenge, robbery, adultery, in a word, in all things contrary to charity and conscience) provided only that he has faith, even if it be but at the hour of death. Let such persons consider, when they are in such a false principle, what truth of faith there is that can form their conscience, and whether it be not what is false. If they suppose that they have anything of conscience, it must be only outward bonds - such as fear of the law, of loss of honor, of gain, or of reputation for the sake of these - that make, with them, what they call conscience, and which lead them not to injure the neighbor, but to do him good. But as this is not conscience, because not charity, therefore when these restraints are loosened or taken away, such persons rush into most wicked and obscene things.

Very different is the case with those who, although they have declared that faith alone saves, have still lived a life of charity; for in their faith there has been charity from the Lord.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1076-1077)