The Doctrine of Faith Separated from the Life

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:25. 26)

The destruction of the church, which is altogether destroyed
as its truths are turned into falsities and its goods into evils.

That the doctrine of faith separated from the life does this can be seen from the fact — that the doctrine of faith is the doctrine of the church, and the doctrine of life, which is called moral theology, is an outside doctrine, that is, serviceable to the church at its pleasure, but is regarded as having nothing of salvation in it because it has nothing of faith in it; yet faith when separated from life is not alive, and what is not alive, but is dead, can save no one.

It is supposed that man from the doctrine of faith separate is able to believe that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, that the Word is Divine, and therefore that what the Word contains is to be believed. These things man can indeed know and can think, and can even in some degree understand from the light of reason, and yet he cannot have such a faith in them as will remain long after death — for the faith that is of the life remains, but not faith separated from the life; and everyone has life to the extent that he abstains from evils, and shuns and turns away from them because they are contrary to the Word, thus contrary to the Lord.

Faith from such a life awaits a man after death, because it is from the Lord, and thus is the Lord's with man.

Thence it is clear that from faith alone man cannot even believe that there is a God; how then can he believe the rest?

From this it follows that the doctrine of faith separated destroys the church in respect to all its goods and truths. That this is so has been made abundantly evident to me from the state of such persons after death with whom I have talked. The followers and defenders of faith separate, who have cleansed the outside only of the cup and the platter and not the inside, when they have fulfilled their time reject all things they have said and believed in the world to be of their faith; and they acknowledge as gods either themselves or others who excel in power and in the arts known in hell; and they even laugh at the truths of the Word which in the world they had called holy.

(from Apocalypse Explained 796)

Who then can be saved?

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? (Matthew 19:16-25)

From Exodus 21:4-6: -

If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

I will not go out free. That this signifies the delight of obedience, is evident from the signification of "going out free," as being the state after combat, which is merely a state of confirmed and implanted truth; for the service, which was of six years, and is called "a week" in Genesis 29:27, 28, signifies labor or some combat, such as those have who are in truths and not in the corresponding good, and who in the spiritual sense are meant by the "Hebrew menservants." These are of such a nature that they cannot be regenerated, but only reformed.

For to be regenerated is said of those who suffer themselves to be brought by the Lord, by means of the truths called the truths of faith, to the good of spiritual life; but to be reformed is said of those who cannot be brought to the good of spiritual life by means of the truths which are of faith; but only to the delight of natural life.

They who suffer themselves to be regenerated, act from affection according to the precepts of faith; but they who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated, but only to be reformed, do not act from affection, but from obedience.

The difference is this —

They who act from affection, act from the heart, and thus from freedom, and they also do truth for the sake of truth, and good for the sake of good, and thus they exercise charity for the sake of the neighbor; but they who act from obedience do not thus act from the heart, consequently not from freedom. If they seem to themselves to act from the heart and from freedom, it is for the sake of something of self-glory which causes it to be so perceived; and they do not do truth for the sake of truth, nor good for the sake of good, but for the sake of the delight arising from this glory. Thus they do not practice charity toward the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor, but in order to be seen, and in order to be recompensed.

From this it is evident who and of what quality are they who are represented by the sons of Israel, and who and of what quality are they who are represented by the Hebrew menservants.

But within the church at this day the knowledge of this distinction has been lost. The reason is that the church at this day is proclaimed and said to be from faith and not from charity; and few know what faith is.

Most persons believing that faith consists in knowing those things which the doctrine of the church teaches, and in being persuaded that they are true; but not that it consists in living according to them. Life according to them they call "moral life," which they separate from the doctrine of the church, and entitle it Moral Theology.

But the learned believe that faith is confidence or trust that they are saved by the Lord's having suffered for them, and redeemed them from hell; and they say that those are saved who have this confidence; thus by faith alone. But such persons do not consider that there cannot be the confidence of faith, except with those who live a life of charity

These are the reasons why knowledge has been lost concerning the difference between those who are in truths of faith and not in the corresponding good of life, and those who are in good of life corresponding with the truths of faith.  Because this knowledge has been lost, what has now been said about those who are in truths and not in good, who are signified by "the Hebrew menservants," cannot but appear strange.

(from Arcana Coelestia 8987)

Damnation, Reformation, Regeneration

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No one can come into the kingdom of God unless he has been born again, for the reason that man by inheritance from his parents is born into evils of every kind, but with an ability to become spiritual by the removal of those evils; and unless he becomes spiritual he cannot come into heaven.

F From being natural to become spiritual is to be born again or regenerated. E

But to know how man is regenerated these three things must be considered:

• what his first state is, which is a state of damnation
• what his second state is, which is a state of reformation
  
• what his third state is, which is a state of regeneration

Man's first state, which is a state of damnation, every one has by inheritance from his parents; for man is thereby born into the love of self and love of the world, and from these as fountains, into evils of every kind. It is by the enjoyments of these loves that he is led; and these enjoyments cause him not to know that he is in evils; for no enjoyment of a love is felt otherwise than as a good: consequently unless a man is regenerated he knows no otherwise than that to love himself and the world above all things is goodness itself; and to rule over all, and to possess the wealth of all, is the highest good. Moreover, this is the source of all evil; for a man then from love looks to no one but himself; or if from love he looks to another, it is as a devil looks to a devil, or a thief to a thief, when they act together.

Those who, from the enjoyment of these loves confirm in themselves these loves and the evils flowing from them, remain natural and become corporeal-sensual, and in their own thought, which is the thought of their spirit, are insane. Nevertheless, while they remain in the world they are able to speak and act rationally and wisely, because they are men, and in consequence possess rationality and liberty; but even this they do from love of self and the world. After death, when they become spirits, they are incapable of any other enjoyment than that which they had in spirit while in the world; and that enjoyment is the enjoyment of infernal love, which is then turned into what is undelightful, painful, and terrible; and this is what is meant in the Word by torment and hell-fire. All this makes clear that man's first state is a state of damnation, and that those are in it who do not permit themselves to be regenerated.

Man's second state, which is the state of reformation, is that in which he begins to think about heaven with reference to the joy of heaven, and from this about God, who is to him the source of heavenly joy. But at first this thought springs from the enjoyment of love of self, which enjoyment is to him heavenly joy. And as long as the enjoyment of that love reigns, together with the enjoyments of the evils that flow from it, he must needs think that he draws near to heaven by pouring out prayers, listening to preaching, going to the Holy Supper, giving to the poor, helping the needy, spending money on churches, contributing to hospitals, and so on. A man in this state knows no otherwise than that he is saved by mere thought about those things which religion teaches, whether it be what is called faith, or what is called faith and charity. He has no other idea than that he is saved by so thinking, because he gives no thought to the evils that he finds enjoyment in, and as long as their enjoyments remain the evils remain. The enjoyments of evil are from lust for them that continually inspires them, and also when no fear prevents, brings them forth.

So long as evils continue in the lusts of their love, and the consequent enjoyments, there is no faith, charity, piety or worship except in mere externals, which to the world seem real, and yet are not. These may be compared to water issuing from an impure fountain, which no one can drink. Man continues in the first state as long as he thinks from religion about heaven and about God, and yet gives no thought to evils as sins; but he comes into the second state, or the state of reformation, when he begins to think that there is such a thing as sin; and still more when he thinks that this or that is a sin, and when he examines it in himself to some extent, and refrains from willing it.

Man's third state, which is a state of regeneration, takes up and continues the former state. It begins when man refrains from evils as sins, and it progresses as he shuns them, and is perfected as he fights against them; and as he from the Lord conquers them he is regenerated.

With one who is regenerated the order of life is reversed; from being natural he becomes spiritual; for when the natural is separated from the spiritual it is contrary to order, while the spiritual is in accordance with order.

Consequently the regenerate man acts from charity; and whatever belongs to his charity he makes to be of his faith also. Yet he becomes spiritual only so far as he is in truths; for man is regenerated only by means of truths and a life in accordance with them; for by means of truths he knows what life is, and by means of the life he does the truths, and thus he conjoins good and truth, which is the spiritual marriage in which heaven is.

(Divine Providence 83)