More than Presence: Conjunction

From Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are two things which make the Church and thence heaven with man - the truth of faith and the good of life.  The truth of faith effects the Lord's presence, and the good of life according to the truths of faith, effects conjunction with Him and thus makes the Church and heaven. That the truth of faith effects the Lord's presence is because it pertains to light, spiritual light being nothing else. That the good of life effects conjunction, is because it pertains to heat; nor is spiritual heat anything else, for it is love, and the good of life pertains to love.

It is well known that all light, even that of winter, effects presence, and that heat united with light effects conjunction; for gardens and flower-beds are seen in all kinds of light, but do not blossom and bear fruit except when heat conjoins itself to light.  The conclusion is evident, that not those who merely know the truths of the Church are endowed by the Lord with love truly conjugial but those who both know its truths and do its goods.

(Conjugial Love 72)

If God is ONLY Good, How did Evil Come into Existence?

A Portion from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How could evil come into existence when from creation nothing but good had existed? That anything may come into existence, it must have its origin. Good could not be the origin of evil, because evil is nothing of good, for it is privative and destructive of good.  And yet as it exists and is felt, it is not nothing but is something. Say, then, whence comes this something after nothing.

... no one is good but God only, and that there is not anything good which in itself is good except from God. He therefore who looks to God, and wills to be led by God, is in good; but he who turns himself away from God and wills to be led of himself is not in good, for the good that he does is either for himself or for the sake of the world; thus it is either meritorious, or is simulated, or hypocritical. Whence it is plain that man himself is the origin of evil. Not that this origin was inherent in man from creation, but that by turning away from God he imposed it upon himself. That origin of evil was not in Adam and his wife, but when the serpent said:-

In the day that ye eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, ye shall be as God (Gen. 3: 5)

and because they then turned away from God and turned to themselves as to a god, they made in themselves the origin of evil. To eat of that tree' signified to believe that he knows good and evil and has wisdom of himself, and not from God.

... How could man turn himself away from God and turn to himself, when yet man can will, think, and therefore do nothing except from God? Why did God permit this?

Man was so created that all that he wills, thinks, and does appears to him just as if in himself and thus of himself. Without this appearance man would not be man, for he could not receive, retain, and as it were appropriate to himself anything of good and truth, or of love and wisdom. Whence it follows that without this, as it were living appearance, man would have no conjunction with God, and therefore no eternal life. But if from this appearance he induces on himself the belief that he does will, think, and therefore do good of himself, and not from the Lord, although it is in all appearance as if of himself, he then turns good into evil within him, and thus makes in himself the origin of evil. This was the sin of Adam.

... love without wisdom is love from man and not from the Lord. And this love, because it conjoins itself with falsities, does not acknowledge God, but itself as a god; and this it tacitly confirms by the faculty of understanding and of becoming wise, as if of himself which is implanted in him from creation. This love therefore is the origin of evil.

(Conjugial Love 444:a)

Wishing To Be Wise From Self-intelligence

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

As "to eat" signifies to appropriate to oneself, it can be seen what is signified by:
Eating of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise (Rev. 2:7);
namely, to appropriate to oneself celestial life; also what is signified by "eating of the tree of knowledge" in Genesis:

Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden eating thou shalt eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of this thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou shalt eat of it dying thou shalt die (2:16, 17).

The "tree of the knowledge (scientia) of good and evil" signifies the knowledge of natural things, through which it is not permitted to enter into the celestial and spiritual things which belong to heaven and the church, thus to enter from the natural man into the spiritual, which is the inverse way, and therefore does not lead to wisdom, but destroys it.

"Adam and his wife" mean the Most Ancient Church, which was a celestial church. Because the men of that church were in love to the Lord, they had Divine truths inscribed on them, and thence they knew from influx the corresponding things in the natural man, which are called knowledges [scientifica]; in a word, there was with them spiritual influx, that is, influx from the spiritual mind into the natural, and thus into the things that are in it, and what these were they saw by correspondence as in a mirror.

With them spiritual things were entirely distinct from natural things; spiritual things had their seat in their spiritual mind, and natural things in their natural mind, and thus they did not immerse what is spiritual in their natural mind, as spiritual-natural men are wont to do. For this reason, if they had consigned spiritual things to the natural memory, and had appropriated them to themselves in that way, that which was implanted with them would have perished, and they would have begun to reason about spiritual things from the natural man, and thus to form conclusions, which celestial men never do. This, moreover, would have been wishing to be wise from self-intelligence, and not from Divine intelligence, as before, and by this they would have extinguished all their celestial life, and they would have entertained natural ideas even about spiritual things. This, therefore, is what is signified by their "not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and if they did eat, "dying they should die."

The like is true of those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom as of these most ancient people meant by "Adam." If these were to imbue the natural man and its memory with knowledges of spiritual truth and good, and should wish to be wise from these, they would become stupid, while yet they are the wisest of all in heaven.

(Apocalypse Explained 617:15,16)