Actual Repentance

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A MEMORABLE RELATION

I was suddenly seized with a disease almost deadly; my whole head was oppressed; a pestilential smoke was let into it from the Jerusalem which is called:

Sodom and Egypt (Rev. 11:8).

I was half dead with the fierce pain; I expected my end. In this state I lay in my bed for three days and a half. My spirit was brought into that condition, and from it my body.

Then I heard about me the voices of some, who said, "Behold, he who preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and Christ as alone man, lies dead in the street of our city." And they asked some of the clergy whether that man was worthy of burial; and they answered, "No; let him lie and be looked at." And they kept going, and coming, and scoffing.

Of a truth this so happened to me while explaining the eleventh chapter of The Apocalypse.

Then harsh remarks were heard from the scoffers, especially these "How can man repent without faith? How can the man Christ be adored as God? Since we are saved freely without any merit of our own, what need is there of anything except the faith only that God the Father sent the Son to take away the damnation of the law, to impute to us His merit, and so justify us before Him, absolve us from our sins by the declaration of a priest, and then give us the Holy Spirit to work in us all good? Is this not in accordance with Scripture and also in accordance with reason?" At this the crowd that stood by applauded.

I heard this and was unable to reply, because I lay almost dead. But after three days and a half my spirit recovered, and in spirit I went out on the street into the city and said again, "Repent, and believe in Christ, and your sins will be forgiven, and you will be saved; otherwise, you will perish. Did not the Lord Himself preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and that they should believe in Him? Did He not command His disciples to preach the same? Does not complete unconcern about life follow the dogma of your faith?"

But they said, "What nonsense! Has not the Son made satisfaction? Does not the Father impute this to us? We who believe this He justifies; thus we are led by the spirit of grace. What then is sin in us, and what is death with us? Preacher of sin and repentance, do you understand this gospel?"

Then a voice came forth out of heaven, saying, "What is the faith of an impenitent man but a dead faith? The end has come, the end has come upon you, unconcerned, blameless in your own eyes, justified in your own belief, satans." Then suddenly a chasm was opened in the midst of the city; it widened; house after house fell into it, and they were swallowed up; and straightway water welled up from the wide gulf and overflowed the waste.

When they had thus sunk down and been apparently overflowed, I was wishing to know their lot in the abyss, and I was told from heaven, "You shall see and hear."

And then the waters by which they seemed to be overflowed disappeared before my eyes; for waters in the spiritual world are correspondences, and therefore appear about those who are in falsities - I then saw them in the sandy bottom, where heaps of stones were piled, among which they were running about and lamenting that they had been cast out of their great city.

They shouted and cried out, "Why has this come upon us? Are we not, by our faith, clean, pure, just, and holy? Are we not, by our faith, cleansed, purified, justified and sanctified?" And others cried out, "Are we not, by our faith, made such that before God the Father we appear, are seen, and are reputed, and before the angels are declared to be clean, pure, just and holy? Have we not been reconciled, propitiated, expiated, and therefore absolved, washed, and cleansed from sin? Has not the condemnation of the law been taken away by Christ? Why, then, have we been cast down into this place as if damned? We heard a bold preacher against sin say in our great city, 'Believe in Christ, and repent.' Have we not believed in Christ, since we have believed in His merit? Have we not, repented, since we have confessed that we are sinners? Why then has this befallen us?"

Then was heard a voice from one side saying to them, "Do you know of anyone sin in which you are? Have you ever examined yourselves, and consequently shunned any evil as a sin against God? He who does not shun evil is in evil. Is not sin the devil? Therefore you are those of whom the Lord says:

Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk before Thee, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He will say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:26, 27; as also those of whom He speaks, Matt. 7:22, 23).

Away, therefore, each to his own place. You see openings in the caverns; enter, and to each one of you will be given his own task to be done, and then food in proportion to your work. If you do not, hunger will soon compel you to go in."

Afterward there came a voice out of heaven to some on the earth who were outside of that great city (who also are spoken of in Rev. 11:13), saying loudly, "Beware, beware of affiliation with such spirits. Can you not understand that the evils which are called sins and iniquities render man unclean and impure? How can man be cleansed and purified from them except by actual repentance, and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?"

"Actual repentance is to examine oneself, to recognize and acknowledge one's sins, to hold oneself guilty, to confess sins before the Lord, to pray for help and power to resist them, and thus refrain from them and begin a new life; and all this you must do as if of yourselves. Do so once or twice a year, when you come to the holy communion; and afterward, whenever the sins of which you have found yourselves guilty recur, say to yourselves, 'We will not do this because it is a sin against God.' This is actual repentance.

Who cannot understand that he who does not examine and see his sins remains in them? For every evil is delightful to a man from his birth; it is delightful to him to take revenge, to commit whoredom, to defraud, to blaspheme, and especially to exercise dominion from self-love; and does not this delight prevent your seeing these sins? And if, perchance, you are told that they are sins, do you not from their delight excuse them, and even prove to yourselves by means of falsities that they are not sins? And, therefore, you remain in them, and afterward commit them more frequently than before, and this even until you do not know what sin is, or indeed whether there is any such thing. With anyone who actually repents it is different. His evils, such as he has recognized and acknowledged, he calls sins, and therefore begins to shun them and turn away from them; and finally to feel their delight to be undelightful. And so far as this is done he sees and loves good, and at length feels the delight of good, which is the delight of the angels of heaven. In a word, so far as anyone puts the devil behind him, he is accepted by the Lord, and is taught, led, withheld from evil, and kept in good by Him; and this is the way, and the only way, from hell to heaven."

It is wonderful that with the Reformed there is a certain enrooted objection, repugnance, and aversion to actual repentance, which is so great as to prevent their compelling themselves to examine themselves, to see their sins, and to confess them before God; it is as if horror seized them when this is proposed. In the spiritual world I have asked very many about this, and they all have declared that it was beyond their power. When they have heard that this is still done by the papists, that is, that they examine themselves, and openly confess their sins to a monk, they have been very much astonished, and especially that the Reformed could not even do this in secret before God, although it is equally enjoined upon them before they come to the holy supper. Some there wished to know why this is so; and they found that such a state of impenitence and such a heart are induced by faith alone. Then it was granted them to see that those Roman Catholics who worship Christ and do not invoke saints are saved.

After this, something like thunder was heard, and a voice speaking from heaven, saying, "We are amazed. Say to the assembly of the Reformed, 'Believe in Christ, repent, and you will be saved. '"

This I said, adding also, "Is not baptism a sacrament of repentance, and therefore introduction into the church? What do the sponsors promise for him who is about to be baptized, but that he will renounce the devil and his works? Is not the holy supper a sacrament of repentance, and thus introduction into heaven? Are not communicants told by all means to repent before coming to it? Does not the catechism, the doctrine of the entire Christian church, teach repentance? Is it not there said, in the six commandments of the second table, Thou shalt not do this or that evil, and not, Thou shalt do this or that good? From this you may know that so far as anyone renounces evil and turns away from it, so far he is moved by and loves good, and until then does not know what good is, nor even what evil is."

(True Christian Religion 567)

Respecting Divine Love

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine love and the Divine wisdom, from which is the life of all things, and of which the Divine attributes (infinity, eternity, providence, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience) are predicated —

Respecting the Divine love:

• In the world it is but little comprehended what love is, and yet it is man's very life.

• The Lord alone is love itself, because life itself, while men and angels are only recipients.

• Life, which is love, is not given except in a form, and that form is a form of uses in the whole complex.

• Such a form is man, individually and collectively, and in such a form is heaven, and also the world.

• There are genera and species of uses, and varieties of species to infinity; also there are degrees of uses.

• There are as many affections as there are uses, and consequently there are genera and species of affections, and differences of species to infinity; and there are degrees of affections.

• Every affection of use in itself is a man, according to its quality and quantity.

• Each use draws its life from the common good, and flows in from it, and gives the necessary, useful, and delightful things of life.

• So far as man is in the love of uses so far is he in the Lord, so far he loves the Lord and the neighbor, and so far is he a man.

• The active force of uses according to their connection in their order produce vital heat, which is perceived in man as love.

• This is made evident by the fact that man wills this thing or that, or this or that is good or not good to him, and finally by his delight.

• All things in man are formed and grow and are held in connection by the Lord by means of love and its heat.

• Man does not know what affection is, and still less that there are as many various affections as there are men born into the world, and will be born to eternity, thus that they are infinite.

• Man does not know otherwise than that he is thought, and yet he is affection.

• Neither does he know that he has eternal life according to his affection of use.

(from Apocalypse Explained 1229)

The Fear of Being Slain

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

When a man deprives himself of charity, he separates himself from the Lord, since it is solely charity, that is, love toward the neighbor, and mercy, that conjoin man with the Lord.

Where there is no charity, there is disjunction, and where there is disjunction, man is left to himself or to his Own; and then whatever he thinks is false, and whatever he wills is evil.

These are the things that slay man, or cause him to have nothing of LIFE remaining.

Those who are in evil and falsity are in continual dread of being slain, as is thus described in Moses:

• Your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste, and upon them that are left of you I will bring softness into their heart in the land of their enemies, and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursueth, and shall stumble everyone upon his brother, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth (Lev. 26:33, 36-37).

In Isaiah:

• The treacherous deal treacherously, yea, in the treachery of the treacherous they deal treacherously. And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again (Isa. 24:16-20).

In Jeremiah:

• Behold, I bring a dread upon thee, from all thy circuits shall ye be driven out every man toward his faces, and none shall gather up him that wandereth (Jer. 49:5).

In Isaiah:

• We will flee upon the horse, therefore shall ye flee; and, we will ride upon the swift, therefore shall they that pursue you be rendered swift; one thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five shall ye flee (Isa. 30:16-17).

In these and other passages of the Word, those who are in falsity and evil are described as "fleeing" and as in "fear of being slain." They are afraid of everybody, because they have no one to protect them. All who are in evil and falsity hate their neighbor, so that they all desire to kill one another.

The state of evil spirits in the other life shows most clearly that those who are in evil and falsity are afraid of everybody. Those who have deprived themselves of all charity wander about, and flee from place to place. Wherever they go, if to any societies, these at once perceive their character by their mere coming, for such is the perception that exists in the other life; and they not only drive them away, but also severely punish them, and with such animosity that they would kill them if they could. Evil spirits take the greatest delight in punishing and tormenting one another; it is their highest gratification.

Not until now has it been known that evil and falsity themselves are the cause of this, for whatever anyone desires for another returns upon himself. Falsity has in itself the penalty of falsity, and evil has in itself the penalty of evil, and consequently they have in themselves the fear of these penalties.

(from Arcana Coelestia 389-391)