Accommodated to Reception

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:5)

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:46)

A few words may here be said about Divine good and Divine truth. The Lord as to the Divine Itself which is called "the Father," and as to the Divine Human which is called "the Son," is the Divine love itself, thus Divine good itself; but the Lord as heaven, which is beneath the Lord as a Sun, is the Divine truth; yet this Divine truth has within it the Divine good accommodated to the reception of angels and spirits. This Divine is what is called "the Spirit of Jehovah" and "the Holy." The reason why this is called Divine truth, and not Divine good, is that angels and spirits are created, and from this are receptions of the Divine truth that proceeds from the Divine good. They, like men, enjoy two faculties, namely, understanding and will, and the understanding has been formed to receive Divine truth, and the will to receive Divine good. The understanding serves them for reception, and also for perception.

An idea of this subject can be obtained by the simple from a comparison with the sun of the world, and with the world that comes forth from it. In the sun of the world there is fire, but that which proceeds from it is heat and light. Everyone is able to know that the light is not in the sun itself, but that the light proceeds from it. And insofar as the light proceeding from the sun has heat in it, plants live and grow, and bring forth fruits and seeds. These things are said by comparison, because universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom; and it is such a representative theater because the natural world came forth through the spiritual world from the Divine, and perpetually comes forth, that is, subsists; hence it is that in the Word by the "sun" is meant the Lord as to Divine love, in like manner by "fire;" and that by "light" is meant the Lord as to Divine truth.

(Arcana Coelestia 10196)

What The Soul Is, and What Its Nature Is

Extract from a Memorable Relation ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah God formed man, and breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).

Who does not believe that the soul is man's inmost and finest essence? Yet what is an essence without a form but a mere figment of the reason? The soul is therefore a form, but what kind of a form shall be explained.

It is the form of all things of love and all things of wisdom; all things of love are called affections, and all things of wisdom are called perceptions. These perceptions from their affections and with them constitute one form in which are innumerable things in such an order, series, and coherence and that they may be called a unit; and they may be called a unit because if it is to be such nothing can be taken from it or added to it. What is the human soul but such a form? Are not all things of love and all things of wisdom the essentials of that form? And in man these are in the soul, and from the soul in the head and body.

You are called spirits and angels; and in the world you believed spirits and angels to be like wind or ether, and thus to be minds or dispositions; but now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and actually men, who in the world thought and lived in a material body; and you knew that it was not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body; and this you called the soul, although of its form you had no knowledge, and yet you have now seen it and still see it. All of you are souls, respecting the immortality of which you have heard, thought, spoken, and written so much; and being forms of love and wisdom from God, you can never die.

Thus the soul is a human form, from which not an iota can be taken away, and to which not an iota can be added; and it is the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body. And as exterior forms receive both essence and form from the inmost form, so you, as you appear to yourselves and to us, are souls. In a word the soul is the man Himself, because it is the inmost man; and therefore its form is fully and completely the human form.  Yet it is not life, but the nearest receptacle of life from God, and thus God's dwelling-place.

(Extract from Memorable Relations, sixth - True Christian Religion 697:9,10)

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Memorabilia is a Latin word meaning "memorable things." Most translations of the Writings render it "Memorable Relations." Actually the term first occurs in the singular, and we then have aliquod memorabile -"something memorable." ~ Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr. 

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"I foresee that many who read the Memorable Relations that are appended to the chapters of this book will believe them to be figments of the imagination. But I declare in solemn truth that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and heard in some state of the mind when asleep, but in a state of complete wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach these things which will belong to His New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. For this purpose He has opened the interiors of my mind, that is, of my spirit; and in this way it has been granted to me to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-seven years." ~ Emanuel Swedenborg  (Conjugial Love 1)

Evils are to Be Shunned

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 4)

[3 - 4 - 5] Evils are to be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil and from the devil.  Goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God. They are to be done by a man as of himself; yet he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him.

What need is there to prove that devils ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil? And that goods ought to be done because they are of God and from God? And that these things ought to be done by man as if of himself, yet that he ought to believe that they are done from the Lord with him and through him?

That these three doctrines are true the whole of the Sacred Scripture confirms from beginning to end.  What else does it contain in summary, but admonition to shun evils and do goods, and to believe in the Lord God?

And moreover, without these three there is no religion. Is not religion a matter of life? And what is life but the shunning of evils and doing goods? And how can a man do these and believe these except as of himself? Therefore if you take these doctrines away from the church you take from it the Sacred Scriptures, and you also take away religion from it which being removed from the church it is not a church.

(from Conjugial Love 82)

Saving Faith is to Believe in Him

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 3)

[2] Saving faith is to believe in Him.

     • This is the will of the Father, that all who believe in the Son shall have everlasting life (John vi. 40).
     • God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John iii. 16).
     • He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the anger of God abideth on him (John iii. 36).

(from Conjugial Love 82)

He is The God of Heaven and Earth

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 2)

[1] There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ

Is not God one and indivisible? is there not a Trinity? If God is one and indivisible, is He not one Person? if one Person, is not the Trinity in that Person? That He is the Lord Jesus Christ, I demonstrate by the following:

     • He was conceived of God the Father (Luke 1:34, 35);
     • as to His soul He is God, and hence, as He himself says, that the Father and He are one (John 10:30);
     • He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:10, 11);
     • he that sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father (John 14:7, 9);
     • no one sees and knows the Father save He who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18);
     • all things of the Father are His (John 3:35; 16:15);
     • He is the way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father save by Him (John 14:6)
thus by Him because He is in Him
     • according to Paul, that in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9).

Furthermore we are taught that He has power over all flesh (John 17:2). and that He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).

From these passages it follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.

(from Conjugial Love 82)

Brief Sketch of the Doctrinals of the New Church

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'

(1) There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2) Saving faith is to believe in Him.
(3) Evils are to be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
(4) Goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God.
(5) They are to be done by a man as of himself; yet he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him.

(from Conjugial Love 82)

ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL GOVERNMENT (pt. 11)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL GOVERNMENT
(pt. 11)

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The law which is justice ought to be enacted in the realm by persons skilled in the law, wise, and who fear God; then both the king and his subjects ought to live according to it. The king who lives according to the enacted law, and in this precedes his subjects by his example, is truly a king.

A king who has absolute power, who believes that his subjects are such slaves that he has a right to their possessions and lives, and if he exercises it, is not a king, but a tyrant.

There ought to be obedience to the king according to the laws of the realm, nor should he be injured by any means either by deeds or words; for on this the public security depends.

(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 323-325)