Comprehending God Born Man in the World

Selection from Emanuel Swedenborg's work

Last Judgment (Posthumous)
The Last Judgment in the year 1757 conducted in the Spiritual World

The Gentiles
About the time of the Last Judgment, Christians appeared there in the middle, where they were arranged at a distance from the center to the circumference, and also at the various quarters according to the light of truth from the love of good.

Around this middle were seen the Mohammedans arranged in like manner at the various quarters, near to the Christians according to the light of truth from good.

Outside this compass were seen the Gentiles arranged according to their religion and according to life therefrom.

All have similar lands divided into mountains, hills, rocks and valleys, and above them are expanses where dwell the best of them who have received from angels truths of doctrine concerning the Lord and concerning life. Beyond them appeared as it were a sea, which was the boundary.

All these circuits taken together are extended not in a plane but in a globe like the earth, so that when I was conducted to the Gentiles, after passing through the Mohammedans, I descended by a declivity.

When the Last Judgment was going on, those who were in the western quarter beyond the Mohammedans, were led away towards the east. They were led, not by a circuit, but above the northern plane of the Christians, and, what I wondered at, on high, so that they were transferred by a way above the Christians, and yet did not communicate with them. And they were then allotted places around the Mohammedans at the east and also at the south. On both sides of where the Mohammedan heavens are, there appeared openings descending into the depths. Thither were cast those of them who were evil, who had worshipped idols, and had thought nothing about God, and at the same time had lived an evil life.

There is also a similar chasm on the northern side of the Mohammedan desert. Into this were cast the worst, and also many of the Roman Catholic religion who had worshipped the images of saints, and had thought nothing at all about the Lord. These latter were gathered from the northern quarter under the mountains there and were mingled with the Gentiles because they are similar. I then saw the whole northern valley even to the mountains there torn up to its foundations, and all who were there, scattered, and then there appeared in that place as it were a smokiness.

I was afterwards led beyond the Mohammedans to certain Gentiles who were in the eastern quarter, with whom it was granted to speak.

They said that they were sad because the Divine does not appear to them, when yet they think of the Divine and speak about it; and, therefore, if there is a God [they had hoped] that He would send to them those who would teach them; but that they had long waited for this in vain, lamenting that perchance He had deserted them, and that thus there seemed nothing else for them but to perish.

And then I heard angels speaking with them out of heaven, saying that God could not have been manifested to them because -

they had not been willing to believe that God was born a man in the world, or that He had taken on a Human, and that until they believe this, God cannot be manifested to them, nor can they be taught, because this is the primary thing of all revelation.

They said that they did indeed believe that God is Man but that they could not comprehend that He was born Man in the world.

But answer was made them, that -

He was not born Man like any other man, since He was not born from a human father, but from the Father Jehovah, and by a Virgin, and that thus He was unlike any other man; for a man's soul from a human father is a recipient of life, but the Lord's soul from the Father Jehovah is life itself, which gives life to all; and that the difference is as between the human and the Divine, and the finite and the infinite, or the create and the uncreate; and because He was such as to His soul, it could not be otherwise than that His body should become like His soul, after He had rejected that of the body which He had taken from the mother; and that therefore He rose as to His whole body, nor did He leave anything of it in the sepulcher, as is the case with every other man, who rises only as to his spirit, and never as to his material body.  And further, it was said that the Divine itself, as it is in itself, which is infinite, could not have done otherwise than reject the finite which was from the mother, and put on the infinite from the Father, thus the Divine. 

They said that they had known no other than that He was like any other man born from a human father, and also that He so died, and was afterwards received by men as God, and that they now know that the Lord is not such a man as others are.

After they received these things they were divided, and those who had received the faith were instructed by angels in other matters of faith and love.

(Last Judgment-Posthumous 126 - 128)

Angels Think about The Lord, His Divine and His Human

A passage from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The internal sense of the Word is especially for the angels; and therefore is adapted to their perceptions and thoughts. They are in their delightful, nay, in their blessed and happy states, when they are thinking about the Lord, His Divine and His Human, and how the Human was made Divine; for they are encompassed with a celestial and spiritual sphere which is full of the Lord; so that it may be said that they are in the Lord. Hence nothing is more blessed and happy to them than to think in accordance with the things that belong to that sphere and its derivative affection.

At the same time, moreover, they are instructed and perfected, especially in this:

How the Lord by degrees and of His own power, as He grew up, made Divine the human into which He was born; and thus how, by means of the knowledges that He revealed to Himself He perfected His rational, dispersed by successive steps its shadows, and introduced it into Divine light.

These and innumerable other things are presented before the angels in a celestial and spiritual manner, with a thousand and a thousand representatives, in the light of life, when the Word is being read.

But these things, which are so precious to the angels, are to men as of no importance, because above their comprehension, and thus in the shade of their understanding; and on the other hand, the things that are precious to men, such as those which contain within them worldly matters, are of no importance to the angels, because below their state and thus in the shade of their wisdom. Thus, wonderful to say, the things that come to shade with man, and almost into contempt, with the angels pass into light, and into their affection, as is the case with many things of the internal sense of the Word.

(Arcana Coelestia 2551)

The Faith of The New Heaven and of The New Church on its Universal Form

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and those are saved who believe in Him.

These are the universal principles of faith relating to the Lord:

• It is a universal principle of faith that God is one in essence and in person, in whom is a Divine trinity, and that He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.

• It is a universal principle of faith that no mortal could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world.

• It is a universal principle of faith that He came into the world to remove hell from man, and that He did remove it by means of contests with it and victories over it, and thereby He subdued it and reduced it to order and made it obedient to Himself.

• It is a universal principle of faith that He came into the world to glorify His Human which He took on in the world, that is, to unite it with the Divine from which [are all things], and thereby He eternally holds hell in order and under obedience to Himself. As this could be accomplished only by means of temptations admitted into His Human, even to the last of them, which was the passion of the cross, He endured even that.

The universal principle of faith on man's part:

• He should believe in the Lord; for by believing in Him there is conjunction with Him and thereby salvation. To believe in the Lord is to have confidence that He saves; and as only those who live rightly can have this confidence, this, too, is meant by believing in Him.

And this the Lord teaches in John:
This is the Father's will, that everyone that believeth in the Son may have eternal life (John 6:40);

and again:
He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36).

(True Christian Religion 2)

The Primary Thing of All Revelation

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren; and they hated him, and could not speak for peace unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they added yet to hate him. And he said unto them, Hear I pray this dream which I have dreamed; and behold we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and lo my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and behold your sheaves came round about, and bowed down themselves to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they added yet to hate him for his dreams, and for his words.

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold I have dreamed yet a dream, and behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down themselves to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father kept the word.  Genesis 37:4 - 11

And lo my sheaf arose, and also stood upright. That this signifies what is doctrinal concerning the Lord's Divine Human is evident from the signification of a "sheaf" as being doctrine ... and from the signification of "arising and standing upright," as being the supreme that should reign, and that they would adore.

That this is the Lord's Divine Human is evident from what follows, namely,
• that the eleven sheaves bowed down themselves to that sheaf

and in the second dream
• that the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down themselves to Joseph, whereby is signified the supreme that should reign, and that they would adore

wherefore also Jacob says,
• "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?"

... the Divine truth of the Lord is what is represented by Joseph; the supreme of this is the Lord Himself, and the supreme among doctrinal things is that His Human is Divine.

With this supreme of doctrinal things the case is this:

The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, and which above all others was called Man, adored the infinite being, and the derivative infinite coming-forth; and because, from the things which could be perceived in their internal man and those which could be felt in their external, and from the visible things in the world, the men of that church could have no perception of the infinite being, but could have some perception of the derivative infinite coming-forth, they therefore adored the infinite coming forth in which is the infinite being.

The infinite coming-forth in which is the infinite being they perceived as a Divine Man, because they knew that the infinite coming-forth was brought forth through heaven from the infinite being; and as heaven is the Grand Man, corresponding to each and all things that are in man ... they therefore could have no other idea of perception concerning the infinite coming forth from the infinite being, than as of a Divine Man;

for whatever from the infinite being passes through heaven as the Grand Man is attended with an image thereof in each and all things.

When that celestial church began to fall away, they foresaw that the infinite coming forth could no longer have influx into the minds of men, and that so the human race would perish; therefore it was revealed to them

that One should be born who would make the Human in Himself Divine, and in this way become the same infinite coming-forth as had been before, and would at last become one with the infinite being as also it had been before.

From this came their prophecy in Genesis concerning the Lord

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen. 3:15).

This is described in John in these words:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-4, 14);

the "Word" is the Divine truth, which in its essence is the infinite coming-forth from the infinite being, and is the Lord Himself as to His Human. This very Human it is from which truth Divine now proceeds and flows into heaven, and through heaven into the minds of men; consequently which rules and governs the universe, as it has ruled and governed it from eternity;

for it is one and the same with the infinite being, because He conjoined the Human with the Divine, which was done by this, that He made the Human in Himself also Divine.

From this it is now evident that the supreme of truth Divine is the Lord's Divine Human, and hence that the supreme among the doctrinal things of the church is that His Human is Divine.

(Arcana Coelestia 4687)

emphasis by reviser

The Divine Trinity (pt 15)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Final Installment pt 15)

From a Trinity of Persons, each one of whom singly is God, according to the Athanasian creed, many discordant and heterogeneous ideas respecting God have arisen, which are phantasies and abortions.

From the doctrine of three Divine persons from eternity, which in itself is the head of all the doctrinals in the Christian churches, there have arisen many ideas of God that are unbecoming and unworthy of the Christian world, which, on the subject of God and His oneness ought to be and might be a light to all peoples and nations in the four quarters of the globe. All who dwell outside the Christian church, both Mohammedans and Jews, and besides these the Gentiles of every cult, are averse to Christianity solely on account of its belief in three Gods. This its propagandists know; and therefore they are very cautious about divulging the doctrine of a trinity of persons as it is taught in the Nicene and Athanasian creeds; for if they did they would be shunned and ridiculed.

The absurd, ludicrous, and frivolous ideas that have sprung up out of the doctrine of three Divine persons from eternity, and that still spring up in every man who retains a belief in the words of that doctrine, rising from his ears and eyes into the sight of his thought, are as follows:

That God the Father sits on high overhead; the Son at His right hand; and the Holy Spirit before them listening, and forthwith traversing the whole world, dispensing according to their decision the gifts of justification, inscribing them upon men and changing men from children of wrath to children of grace, and from being damned to being elect.

I appeal to the learned of the clergy and well-informed of the laity, whether in their minds they cherish any other visual image than this, for this flows of itself from the same doctrine (see Memorable Relation, n. 16).

There flows from it also a curiosity for conjecturing what they conversed about before the world was made, whether about making the world, or perchance about those who according to the Supralapsarians were to be predestined and justified, or also about redemption; likewise what they have been conversing about among themselves since the world was created -

the Father from His authority and power to impute, the Son from His power to mediate; moreover that imputation, which is election, is from the mercy of the Son who intercedes for all in general and for some individually, and that the Father, being moved by love to the Son and by the agony witnessed in Him when on the cross, has grace for such.

But who cannot see that such things are silly conceits about God? And yet in the Christian churches these are the very sanctities, which are to be kissed with the lips, but not looked into by any mental vision because they are above the reason, and if they were lifted out of the memory into the understanding man would become insane. This, however, does not take away the idea of three Gods but induces a stupid faith, because of which a man, when thinking about God, may be likened to a sleep-walker wandering about in the darkness of night, or to one blind from birth wandering in the light of day.

That a trinity of Gods is fixed in the minds of Christians, although from shame they deny it, is very evident from the ingenuity of many of them in demonstrating by means of various things in plain and solid geometry, in arithmetic, and in physics, and also by foldings of cloth and paper, that the three are one and the one is three. Thus they play with the divine trinity as jugglers play with each other. Their juggling on this subject may be compared to the visions of those suffering from fever, who see one object (whether a man, or a table or a candle) as three, or three as one. It may also be compared to the tricks of those who work soft wax with their fingers and mould it into various shapes, now making it triangular to exhibit the trinity, and again spherical to exhibit the unity, meanwhile asking, "Is not the substance still one and the same?" And yet the Divine trinity is like the one pearl of great value, but when divided into persons it is like that pearl divided into three parts, whereby it is utterly and manifestly ruined.

(True Christian Religion 183 - 185)

The Divine Trinity (pt 14)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 14)

So, too, unless a new heaven and a new church were established by the Lord there could no flesh be saved.

It is said in Matthew:

Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened no flesh would be saved (24:21, 22).

This chapter treats of "the consummation of the age," by which the end of the present church is meant; therefore "to shorten those days" means to bring that church to an end and establish a new one.

Who does not know that unless the Lord had come into the world and wrought redemption no flesh could have been saved? To work redemption means to found a new heaven and a new church.

That the Lord would again come into the world He foretold in the Gospels, Matt. 24:30, 31; Mark 13:26; Luke 12:40; 21:27; and in the Apocalypse, particularly in the last chapter. That He is also effecting a redemption at this day by founding a new heaven and establishing a new church to the end that man may be saved...

The great mystery that unless a new church is established by the Lord no flesh can he saved, is this:

That so long as the dragon with his horde remains in the world of spirits into which he has been cast, no Divine truth united to Divine good can pass through that world to men on earth without being perverted and falsified, or without its perishing.

This is what is meant in the Apocalypse by the words:

The dragon was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Woe to those that inhabit the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down unto them having great anger (12:9, 12, 13).

But when the dragon had been cast into hell (10:10),

John saw a new heaven and a new earth, and he saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (21:1, 2);

"the dragon" meaning those who are in the faith of the present church.

In the spiritual world I have several times talked with those who believe that men are justified by faith alone; and I have told them that their doctrine is both erroneous and absurd, and induces upon men security, blindness, sleep, and in spiritual things a night, and consequently death to the soul; and I have exhorted them to discard it; but I received the answer, "Why discard it? Does not the superiority of the learning of the clergy over that of the laity hang upon that sole doctrine?" I replied, "In that case they do not regard the salvation of souls as any object, but the superiority of their own reputation; and as they have adapted the truths of the Word to their false principles, and have thus adulterated them, they are those angels of the abyss, called Abaddons and Apollyons (Apoc. 9:11), who signify those that destroy the church by a total falsification of the Word."

But they made answer, "What do you mean? By our knowledge of the mysteries of that faith we are oracles, and from it as from a sanctuary we give responses; therefore we are not Apollyons but Apollos." Indignant at this reply I said, "If you are Apollos you are also leviathans - your leaders the crooked leviathans, and the rest of you the stretched-out leviathans, whom God will visit with His sore and great sword" (Isa. 27:1). But at this they laughed.

To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 182)

Divine Trinity (pt 13)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(Continued pt 13)

This is the source of that "abomination of desolation, and that tribulation such as has not been nor ever shall be," which the Lord foretold in Daniel, and in the Gospels, and in the Apocalypse.

In Daniel we read:

      Upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation even until the consummation and decision, it shall drop upon the devastation (9:27).

In the gospel of Matthew the Lord says:

      Many false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray. When, therefore, ye shall see the abomination of desolation predicted by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him that readeth note it well (24:11, 15);

and afterwards in the same chapter:

      Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be (verse 21).

This tribulation and that abomination are treated of in seven chapters of the Apocalypse; they are what are meant:

      By the black horse, and the pale horse going out of the book, the seal of which the Lamb opened (6:5-8).

Also by:

      The beast coming up out of the abyss which made war upon the two witnesses and killed them (11:7 seq.).

Also by:

      The dragon which stood before the woman about to be delivered, that he might devour her child, and which pursued her into the desert and there from his mouth cast out water as a river that he might drown her (12).

Also by:

The beasts of the dragon, one from the sea and the other from the earth (13).

Again:

      By the three green spirits like frogs which went forth out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (16:13).

And finally by this:

      That after the seven angels had poured out the bowls of the wrath of God, in which were the seven last plagues, into the earth, the sea, the fountains and rivers, upon the sun, upon the seat of the beast, upon the Euphrates, and at length into the air, there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth (16).

The "earthquake" means the overturning of the church, which is done by falsities and falsifications of truth, and this is signified also by:

      The great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world (Matt. 24:21).

The following words have a like meaning:

      And the angel thrust in his sickle and gathered the vineyard of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the anger of God; and the wine-press was trodden and there went out blood even unto the bridles of the horses for a thousand and six hundred furlongs (Apoc. 14:19, 20);

"blood" signifying truth falsified. Besides other things contained in those seven chapters.

In the Gospels (Matt. 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21) the successive states of decline and corruption in the Christian church are described; and "the great tribulation such as hath not been since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be" which is there mentioned means (as in many other places in the Word) the infestation of truth by falsities, even until no truth remains that is not falsified and consummated. This also is meant by "the abomination of desolation" there mentioned; and again by "the desolation upon the bird of abominations" and by "the consummation and decision" in Daniel; and the same thing is described in the Apocalypse in the passages just quoted from that book.

This has come to pass because the church, instead of acknowledging the unity of God in trinity and His trinity in unity in one person, has acknowledged these in three persons; and in consequence the church has been based in the mind upon the idea of three Gods, and on the lips upon the confession of one God; and thus men have separated themselves from the Lord, and at length to such an extent that no idea of Divinity in His Human nature is left with them, when in fact He is God the Father in the Human, and therefore He is called:

      The Father of eternity (Isa. 9:6)

      And He said to Philip, He that seeth Me seeth the Father (John 14:7, 9).

But it may be asked, Whence is the very stream of that fountain from which has come forth an abomination of desolation such as is described in Daniel (9:27), and a tribulation such as was not nor shall be (Matt. 24:21)?

The answer is, that it comes from that same universal faith of the Christian world, and from its influx, operation, and imputation according to traditions. Wonderful it is that the doctrine of justification by that faith alone (which, however, is no faith but only a chimera) controls every point of doctrine in Christian churches; that is, with the clerical order it rules as almost the sole theological principle. It is what all students of divinity eagerly learn in the schools and drink in and absorb; and afterwards, seemingly inspired by heavenly wisdom, they teach it in the churches and publish it in books; and by it they strive after and acquire a reputation and fame and praise for superior learning; and on account of it, diplomas, degrees, and prizes are bestowed upon them; and all this is done, although by that same faith alone-

The sun at this day is darkened, the moon is robbed of her light, the stars have fallen from heaven, and the powers of the heavens have been shaken, according to the words of the Lord's prophecy in Matthew (24:29).

It has been proved to me that the doctrine of this faith has today so darkened men's minds that they are not willing, and therefore as it were not able, to see any Divine truth inwardly, either in the light of the sun or in the light of the moon, but only outwardly on the mere rough surface by the light on a hearth at night; and I am therefore able to declare, that if Divine truths respecting the real conjunction of charity and faith, respecting heaven and hell, the Lord, life after death, and eternal happiness, were sent down from heaven written in letters of silver, those who hold to justification and sanctification by faith alone would not deem them worth reading. But it would be wholly different if a treatise on justification by faith alone were sent up from the hells; this they would receive, and would kiss it and carry it home in their bosoms.
To be continued...

(True Christian Religion 179 - 181)