Why then has all this befallen us?

Excerpt from a Memorable Relation
An Occurrence in the Spiritual World
Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

WHAT IS THE FAITH OF AN IMPENITENT MAN, BUT A DEAD FAITH?
FAITH ALONE INDUCES SUCH A STATE OF IMPENITENCE AND SUCH A HEART
BELIEVE IN CHRIST, AND DO THE WORK OF REPENTANCE, AND YOU WILL BE SAVED

Do you know any sin in which you are? Have you ever examined yourselves? Have you, in consequence, shunned any evil as a sin against God? For he who does not shun sin, remains in it and is not sin the devil? Ye are therefore of those of whom the Lord said:

Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets; but He shall say, I say to you, I know you not, whence ye are; depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:26-27);

and of whom in Matt. 7:22, 23:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

"Depart ye, therefore, everyone to his own place. You see the openings into those caverns, enter, and there work shall be given each of you to do, and afterwards food in proportion to your work; if not, still hunger will compel you to enter."

"Take heed to yourselves, take heed how you associate with such persons; can you not understand that evils, which are called sins and iniquities, render man unclean and impure? How can man be cleansed and purified from them, but by actual repentance, and by faith in Jesus Christ? Actual repentance is to examine one's self to know and acknowledge his sins, to hold himself guilty, to confess them before the Lord, to implore help and the power to resist them, and thus to desist from them, and lead a new life, doing all these things as of yourselves. Do this once or twice a year, when you approach the Holy Communion, and afterwards when the sins, of which you have found yourselves guilty, recur; then say to yourselves, We will not consent to them because they are sins against God. This is actual repentance."

"Who cannot understand that he who does not search out and see his sins, remains in them? For all evil is delightful from birth; for it is delightful to revenge, to commit whoredom, to defraud, to blaspheme, and especially to rule over others from self-love; is it not the delight that causes them not to be seen, and if perchance it is said they are sins, do you not from that delight excuse them? Yea, you persuade yourselves by falsities and confirm that they are not sins, and thus continue in them, and practice them afterwards more than before, even till you no longer know what sin is, or whether there be sin. It is otherwise with everyone who actually repents. His evils which he knows and acknowledges, he calls sins, and on that account begins to shun and turn away from them, and to feel their delight as undelightful. And in proportion as this is the case, he sees and loves goods, and at length feels delight in them, which is the delight of heaven. In a word, so far as anyone rejects the devil, so far he is adopted by the Lord, and by Him is taught, led, withheld from evils, and is held in goods. This and no other is the way from hell to heaven."

"Is not Baptism a sacrament of repentance, and thence an introduction into the church? What else do the sponsors promise for the person to be baptized, but that he will renounce the devil and his works? Is not the Holy Supper a sacrament of repentance, and hence an introduction into heaven? Is it not declared to the communicants, that they should by all means do the work of repentance before they approach? Does not the Catechism, which is the universal doctrine of the Christian church, teach repentance? Is it not said in the six commandments of the second table, Thou shalt not do this and that evil, and not, Thou shalt do this and that good? Hence you may know, that as far as anyone shuns evil, so far he loves good, and that before this he does not know what good is, nor even what evil is."

(from Apocalypse Revealed 531)

Speaks As One Thinks

Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A Memorable Relation —
GOING INTO THE WORLD OF SPIRITS WITH AN UNJUST IDEA OF GOD

• In the natural world the speech of man is twofold, because his thought is twofold, exterior and interior; for a man can speak from interior thought and at the same time from exterior thought, and he can speak from exterior thought and not from interior, yea, contrary to interior thought, whence come dissimulations, flatteries, and hypocrisies.

• But in the spiritual world man's speech is not twofold, but single. He there speaks as he thinks, otherwise the sound is harsh and offends the ear; but yet he may be silent, and so not publish the thoughts of his mind. Therefore, a hypocrite, when he comes among the wise, either goes away, or retires to a corner of the room and withdraws himself from observation, and sits silent.

On one occasion there were many gathered together in the world of spirits, who were discoursing on this subject, and saying, that not to be able to speak except as one thinks, must be a hard thing for those who might be in company with the good, but yet who have not thought justly concerning God and the Lord. In the midst of the assembly were those of the Reformed, and many of the clergy, and next to them were papists and monks; and they all at first said it was not a hard thing. "What need is there to speak otherwise than one thinks, and if one should happen not to think justly, can he not close his lips and keep silence?" And one of the clergy said, "Who does not think justly of God and the Lord?" But some of the company said, "Let us, however, try." And to those who had confirmed themselves in the idea of a Trinity of Persons in God, especially from these words in the Athanasian doctrine, "There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit, and as the Father is God, so the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God," it was said that they should say, "one God"; but they could not; they distorted and folded their lips in many ways, but could not articulate a sound in any other words than such as were consonant with the ideas of their thought, which were ideas of three Persons, and thence of three gods.

They who had confirmed themselves in faith separate from charity, were then asked to name "Jesus"; but they could not; yet they could all say Christ, and also God the Father. This they wondered at, and inquired into the cause, which they found to be this, that they had prayed to God the Father for the Son's sake, and had not prayed to the Savior Himself; for "Jesus" signifies Savior.

They were then requested that from thinking of the Lord's Divine Human, they should say, "Divine Human"; but none of the clergy that were present could do so, though some of the laity could, wherefore the matter was taken into serious discussion; and then:

1. The following passages from the Evangelists were read to them:

The Father hath given all things into the Son's hand (John 3:35)

The Father hath given the Son power over all flesh (John 17:2).

All things are delivered unto Me by the Father (Matt. 11:27).

All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18).

And they were directed to keep in the thought, that Christ, both as to His Divine and as to His Human, is the God of heaven and earth, and thus to pronounce "Divine Human." But still they could not; and they said that they indeed retained from those passages something of the thought of it from their understanding concerning it, but not acknowledgment, and that on its account they were not able.

2. Afterwards was read to them out of Luke (1:32, 34, 35), that the Lord as to the Human was the Son of Jehovah God, and that everywhere in the Word He is called, as to the Human, "the Son of God," and also "the Only-begotten," and they were asked to hold this in the thought; and likewise that the Only-begotten Son of God born in the world cannot but be God, as the Father is God, and to utter the words, "Divine Human." But they said, "We cannot, by reason that our spiritual thought, which is interior, does not admit into the thought which is next to the speech any other than similar ideas;" and that thence they could perceive, that it is not permitted them to divide their thoughts, as it was in the natural world.

3. Then were read to them these words of the Lord to Philip:

Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and the Lord said, he who seeth Me seeth the Father; believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? (John 14:8-11).

And in another place:

The Father and He are one (John 10:30, and elsewhere).

And it was enjoined them to hold this in the thought and say, "Divine Human." But as their thought was not rooted in the acknowledgment that the Lord was God as to His Human also, therefore they could not; they twisted and folded their lips even to indignation, and would have forced their mouth to utter and force it out, but they were not able. The reason was, because the ideas of thought, which flow from acknowledgment, make one with words uttered by the tongue, with those who are in the spiritual world; and where such ideas do not exist, there are no words, for the ideas become words in speaking.

4. Moreover there was read to them from the doctrine of the church received throughout the whole world, the following passage, taken from the Athanasian Creed: "That the Divine and Human in the Lord are not two but one, yea, one Person, united altogether like soul and body;" and it was said to them, "From this you may possibly have an idea from the acknowledgment that the Lord's Human is Divine, because His soul is Divine, for it is from the doctrine of your church, acknowledged by you when in the world. Moreover the soul is the essence itself, and the body is its form, and the essence and form make one, like being and existing, and like the efficient cause of the effect, and the effect itself." They retained that idea, and wished to utter "Divine Human"; but they could not; for their interior idea concerning the Lord's Human exterminated and expunged this new supplemental idea, as they called it.

5. Again there was read to them this passage from John:

The Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word became flesh (John. 1:1, 14).

And the following from Paul:

In Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity bodily (Col. 2:9).

And they were told to think firmly that God, who was the Word, was made flesh, and that all the Divine dwells in Him bodily, and perhaps then they might be able to pronounce "Divine Human." But still they could not, saying openly that they could not have the idea of the Divine Human, because God is God, and man is man, and God is spirit, and of a spirit we have never thought any otherwise than as of wind or ether.

6. At length it was said to them: you know that the Lord said:

Abide in me, and I in you, he who abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4-5).

And as some of the English clergy were present, there was read to them this passage out of one of their exhortations before the holy communion, "For when we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink the blood, then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us." "If now you will but think that this cannot take place, except the Lord's Human be Divine, you may pronounce 'Divine Human,' from an acknowledgment in thought." But still they could not; so deeply was the idea impressed upon them that the Lord's Divine was one thing and His Human another, and that His Divine was like the Divine of the Father, and His Human like the human of another man. But it was said to them, "How can you think thus? Is it possible for a rational mind ever to think that God is three, and the Lord two?"

7. Afterwards they turned to the Lutherans, saying that the Augustan confession and Luther taught that the Son of God and the Son of man in Christ are one Person, and that He even as to the Human nature, is the true, omnipotent, and eternal God, and that as to this nature also, being present at the right hand of God Almighty, He governs all things in the heavens and on earth, fills all things, is with us, and dwells and operates in us; and that there is no distinction of adoration, because by the nature which is seen, the Divinity which is not seen is adored, thus that in Christ God is Man and Man is God. On hearing this, they said, "Is it so?" And they looked round, and presently they said, "This is what we did not know before; therefore we are not able." But one and another said, "We have read it and written it, but yet when we thought of it in ourselves from ourselves, they were only words of which we had no interior idea."

8. At length, turning to the papists, they said, "Possibly you can name the 'Divine Human,' because you believe that in your Eucharist, in the bread and wine and in every part, there is the whole of Christ, and also you adore Him as God, when you show and carry about the host; and likewise because you call Mary the bringer forth of God, consequently you acknowledge that she brought forth God, that is, the Divine Human." They then wished to pronounce it from those ideas, of the thought concerning the Lord, but could not, by reason of their entertaining a material idea of His body and blood; and by reason of the assertion that the Human and not the Divine power is transferred by Him to the Pope. Then a certain monk rose up and said that he could think of the Divine Human, concerning the most holy virgin Mary, the God-bearer, and also of the saint of his monastery. And another monk came, and said, "From my idea of thought, I could rather call his holiness, the Pope, the Divine Human, than Christ;" but then some other monks pulled him back, and said, "Shame on you."

After this heaven was seen open, and there were seen tongues, as little flames, descending and flowing in with some; and they then celebrated the Divine Human of the Lord, saying, "Remove the idea of three Gods, and believe that in the Lord dwells all the fullness of Divinity bodily, and that the Father and He are one, as the soul and body are one, and that God is not wind, or ether, but that He is Man, and then you will be conjoined with heaven, and thereby have power from the Lord to pronounce the name of 'Jesus,' and say 'Divine Human.'"

(Apocalypse Revealed 294)

Doing For The Sake Of Salvation

Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
A Memorable Relation

THOSE WHO HAD CONFIRMED THEMSELVES IN THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE
THOSE WHO BELIEVED THAT CHARITY AND FAITH ARE A ONE

I saw in the spiritual world two flocks, one of goats and the other of sheep; I wondered who they were, for I knew that animals, seen in the spiritual world, are not animals, but correspondences of the affections and thence of the thoughts of those who are there. Wherefore I approached nearer, and as I drew near, the likenesses of animals disappeared, and instead of them were seen men. And it was shown, that —

• they who constituted the flock of goats, were those who had confirmed themselves in the doctrine of justification by faith alone

• they who constituted the flock of sheep, were those who believed that charity and faith are a one, as good and truth are a one.

And then I spoke with those who had been seen as goats, and said, "Why are you thus assembled?" They consisted chiefly of clergy, who gloried in their fame for erudition, because they knew the arcana of justification by faith alone. They said that they were assembled to sit in council, because they had heard that what is said by Paul (Romans 3:28), that man is justified by faith without the works of the Law, was not rightly understood, because Paul by the works of the Law meant the works of the Mosaic law, which was for the Jews; which we also clearly see from his words to Peter, whom he rebuked for Judaizing when yet he knew that no one is justified by the works of the Law (Galatians 2:14-16) Also, that he distinguishes between the law of faith and the law of works. and between Jews and Gentiles, or circumcision and uncircumcision, meaning by circumcision, Judaism, as everywhere else, and likewise from his summing up with these words: Do we then abrogate the law through faith? Not so, but we establish the Law (Rom. 3:31). He says all these things in one series (Romans 3:27-31), and he also says in the preceding chapter: For not the hearers of the Law are justified by God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified (Rom. 3:13). God will render to every man according to his deeds (Rom. 2:6). We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether they be good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). Besides many other things from him; from which it is evident that Paul rejects faith without good works, equally with James:

Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (2:17-26)

That the works of the Mosaic law, which were for the Jews, were meant by Paul, we are additionally confirmed in by this consideration, that all the statutes for the Jews in Moses are called "the Law," thus "the works of the Law," which we perceive from these passages: This is the law of the meal-offering (Lev. 6:9 seq.). This is the law of the sacrifice (Lev. 7:1). This is the law of the sacrifice of the peace-offering (Lev. 7:7, 11 seq.). This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meal-offering, of the sacrifice for sin and guilt, for the consecration (Lev. 7:37). This is the law of the beast and of the bird (Lev. 11:46 seq.). This is the law for her that bringeth forth a son or a daughter (Lev. 12:7). This is the law of leprosy (Lev. 13:59; 14:2, 32, 54, 57). This is the law of him that hath an issue (Lev. 15:32). This is the law of jealousy (Num. 5:29-30). This is the law of the Nazarite (Num. 6:13, 21). This is the law of cleansing (Num. 19:14). This is the law concerning the red heifer (Num. 19:2). The law for the king (Deut. 17:15-19). Yea, the whole book of Moses is called: The book of the law (Deut 31:9, 11-12, 26; also in the evangelists, Luke 2:22; 24:44; John 1:45; 7:22-23; 8:5; and other places). To this they added also what they had seen in Paul, that the law of the Decalogue was to be lived, and that it is fulfilled by charity, which is love towards the neighbor (Romans 13:8-11); thus not by faith alone. They said that this was the reason of their being convened.

But that I might not disturb them, I retired; and then they again appeared, at a distance, like goats, and sometimes as lying down, and sometimes as standing; but they turned themselves away from the flock of sheep. They appeared as if they were lying down, when deliberating, and as standing up, when they came to a conclusion. But, keeping my eyes fixed upon their horns, I wondered on seeing that the horns on their foreheads sometimes appeared to extend forward and upward, then to be bent backward, and at last to be thrown back entirely. And then they all suddenly turned round to the flock of sheep, but still appeared as goats. Wherefore I drew near to them again, and inquired, What now? They replied, that they had come to this conclusion, that faith alone produces the goods of charity, which are called good works, as a tree produces fruit. But then thunder was heard, and lightning seen from above; and presently there appeared an angel standing between the two flocks, who cried to the flock of sheep, —

"Do not hearken to them; they have not receded from their former faith, which is, that God the Father hath compassion for the sake of the Son; which faith is not faith in the Lord; neither is faith a tree, but man is a tree; but do the work of repentance, and look to the Lord, and you will have faith; faith before that, is not a faith in which there is anything living."

Then the goats, whose horns were directed backward, wished to approach the sheep; but the angel standing between them, divided the sheep into two flocks, and said to those on the left, "Join yourselves to the goats; but I say to you, that a wolf will come, which will snatch them away; and you with them."

But after the two flocks of sheep had separated, and they on the left hand had heard the threatening words of the angel, they looked at one another, and said, "Let us confer with our former associates." And then the left-hand flock spoke to the right, saying, "Why have you receded from your pastors? Are not faith and charity a one, as a tree and its fruit are one? For the tree by its branch is continued into the fruit. Tear away anything from the branch which flows by continuity into the fruit, and will not the fruit perish? Ask our priests if it is not so." And then they asked, and the priests looked around to the rest, who winked with their eyelids to intimate that they had spoken well. And then they replied that it was so, that faith is preserved by the fruit; but they would not say faith is continued in the fruit.

But then one of the priests, who was among the sheep on the right hand, rose up and said, "They have answered you that it is so, but they have told their companions that it is not so; for they think otherwise." Wherefore they inquired, "How, then, do they think? Do they not think as they teach?"

He said, "No; they think that every good of charity, which is called a good work, done by man for the sake of salvation or eternal life, is not good but evil, by reason that man desires to save himself by his own works, by claiming to himself the justice and merit of the only Savior; and that it is so with every good work, in which man feels his own will. Therefore among themselves they call good works from man, not blessed, but cursed; and say that they merit hell rather than heaven."

But the flock on the left hand said, "You speak falsehoods against them; do they not preach manifestly before us charity and its works, which they call the works of faith?"

He replied, "You do not understand their preachings; only a clergyman, who is present, attends and understands. They think only of moral charity, and its civil and political goods, which they call the goods of faith, which yet are not at all so. For a man may be an atheist, and perform these works in the same manner, and under the same form. Wherefore they are unanimous in saying that no one is saved by any works, but by faith alone; but this shall be illustrated by comparisons. An apple tree produces apples; but if a man does what is good for the sake of salvation, as the tree produces apples by continuity, then those apples are rotten within, and full of worms. They say, also, that a vine produces grapes; but that if a man were to do spiritual goods as a vine grapes, he would produce wild grapes."

But then they asked, "What is the nature of their goods of charity or works, which are the fruits of faith?"

He replied, "They are inconspicuous, being inwardly in man from the Holy Spirit, concerning which man knows nothing."

But they said, "If a man knows nothing concerning them, there must surely be some conjunction, or how could they be called works of faith? perhaps those insensible goods are then insinuated into the voluntary works of man by some mediating influx, as by some affection, aspiration, inspiration, incitation, and excitation of the will, by a tacit perception in thought and thence exhortation, contrition, and thus by conscience, and thence by impulse and obedience to the Decalogue and the Word, as an infant, or as a wise man, or by something else of a similar nature."

But he replied, "No; and if they say it is effected by such means because by faith, still they bury them with words in their discourses in such a manner that the result after all is, that they do not proceed from faith; some, however, do maintain such things, but as the signs of faith, but not as its bonds with charity. Some have nevertheless thought of a conjunction by the Word."

And then they said, "Is there not thus conjunction, when man voluntarily acts according to the Word?"

But he replied, "This is not what they think; they ascribe it solely to the hearing the Word, thus not to the understanding of the Word, lest anything should manifestly enter by the understanding into the thought and will of man; since they assert that everything voluntary in man is meritorious, and that in spiritual things, man cannot begin, will, think, understand, believe, operate, and cooperate anything, any more than a stock; but yet it is different with the influx of the Holy Spirit by faith into the speech of the preacher, because these are acts of the mouth, and not acts of the body; likewise because man acts by faith with God, but by charity with men."

But when one of them heard that it was done merely by hearing the Word, and not by understanding the Word, being indignant, said, "Is this through the understanding of the Word, by the Holy Spirit alone, whilst man, throughout the church service, turns himself away, or sits deaf as a post, or while he is sleeping, or only from an exhalation from the volume of the Word? What is more ludicrous?"

After this a certain man of the flock of the right hand, who excelled the rest in judgment, requested to be heard, and said, "I heard a certain person say, 'I have planted a vineyard, now will I drink wine even to intoxication.' But another asked, 'Will you drink the wine out of your own cup by your own right hand?' And he said, 'No; but out of an inconspicuous cup from an inconspicuous hand.' And the other replied, 'Of a certainty then you will not be intoxicated.'"

Presently the same man said, —

"But hear me, I beseech you; I say unto you, drink wine from the Word understood. Do you not know that the Lord is the Word? Is not the Word from the Lord? Is he not therefore in it? If then you do good from the Word, do you not do it from the Lord, from his mouth and will? And if you at the same time look to the Lord, he will also lead you, and will cause you to do it, and this he will do through you, and you as from yourselves. Who can say, when doing anything from a king, from his mouth and will, 'I do this from myself, from my own mouth or command, and from my own will?'

After this he turned to the clergy, and said, "Ye ministers of God, seduce not the flock."

On hearing these things, the greater part of the flock on the left hand receded, and joined themselves with the flock on the right; some of the clergy also then said, "We have heard what we have not heard before; we are shepherds; we will not leave the sheep." And they receded along with them, and said,

"That man spoke a true word. Who can say, when he does anything from the Word, thus from the Lord, from His mouth and will, I do this from myself? Who that does anything from the mouth and will of a king, says, 'I do this from myself'"?

Now we see Divine providence, why a conjunction of faith and works has not been discovered, which has been acknowledged by the ecclesiastical body. It could not be found, because no such conjunction can be given, for theirs is not a faith in the Lord, who is the Word, and therefore neither is it a faith from the Word.

But the other priests went away, flourishing their caps, and crying out, "Faith alone! faith alone, it will live still."

(Apocalypse Revealed 417)