Two Beginnings of Falsities - One from ignorance of truth, the other from cupidities

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Falsity from ignorance of truth is not so pernicious as falsity from cupidities. For the falsity of ignorance arises either from one's having been so instructed from childhood, or from having been diverted by various occupations so that one has not examined whether what professes to be true is really so, or from not having had much faculty of judging concerning what is true and what is false. The falsities from these sources do not inflict much harm, provided the man has not much confirmed and thus persuaded himself, being incited thereto by some cupidity so as to defend the falsities; for by doing this he would make the cloud of ignorance dense, and turn it into darkness so that he could not see the truth.

But the falsity of cupidities exists when the origin of the falsity is the cupidity or love of self and of the world; as when one seizes upon some point of doctrine and professes it in order to captivate minds and lead them, and explains or perverts the doctrine in favor of self, and confirms it both by reasonings from memory-knowledges, and by the literal sense of the Word. The worship derived from this is profane, however holy it may outwardly appear; for inwardly it is not the worship of the Lord, but the worship of self. Nor does such a man acknowledge anything as true except insofar as he can explain it so as to favor himself. Such worship is that which is signified by "Babel."

But the case is different with those who have been born and brought up in such worship, and who do not know that it is false, and who live in charity. In their ignorance there is innocence, and in their worship there is good from charity.

The profanity in worship is not predicated so much from the worship itself, as from the quality of the man who is in the worship.

(Arcana Coelestia 1295)

True Love

From the Posthumous Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg

Canons of the New Church

1. Love is spiritual conjunction.

2. True love cannot be quiescent in itself, and be restrained within its own limits, but it wills to go forth and embrace others with love.

3. True love wills to be conjoined to others, and to communicate with them, and to give of its own.

4. True love wills to dwell in others, and in itself from others.

5. The Divine Love, which is Love itself, and God Himself, wills that it may be in a subject which is His image and likeness; consequently He wills to be in man, and man to be in Him.

6. In order that this may be effected, it follows from the very essence of Love, which is in God, and hence from an urgent cause, that the universe must needs be created by God, in which are earths, and upon them men, and in the men minds and souls, with which the Divine Love can be conjoined.

7. Therefore all things which are created regard man as the end.

8. Since the angelic heaven is formed from men, from their spirits and souls, all things which are created regard the angelic heaven as the end.

9. The angelic heaven is the habitation itself of God with men, and of men with God.

10. Eternal beatitudes, felicities, and delights together, are the ends of creation, because they are of love.

11. This end is the inmost; thus as it were, the life and soul, and as force and endeavor in each and all created things.

12. That end is God in them.

13. This end implanted in created things, in general and in particular, causes the universe to be preserved in the created state, in so far as the ends of an opposite love do not obstruct and destroy.

14. God from His Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience, continually provides lest opposite ends from opposite loves should prevail, and the work of creation be ruined even to destruction.

15. Preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence.

(Canons Chp 7:11)

Why Man is Regenerated by Means of Temptations

From a passage in Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man is nothing but an organ, or vessel, which receives life from the Lord; for man does not live from himself.  The life which inflows with man from the Lord is from His Divine love. This love, or the life thence derived, inflows and applies itself to the vessels which are in man's rational, and to those which are in his natural.  In consequence of the hereditary evil into which man is born, and of the actual evil which he acquires, these vessels are in a contrary position within him relatively to the inflowing life, yet insofar as the life which flows in can dispose the vessels to receive it, it does so dispose them. These vessels in the rational man, and in the natural, are what are called truths, but in themselves they are merely perceptions of the variations of form of these vessels, and of the changes of state according to which in divers ways these variations come forth, being effected in the most subtle substances, by methods inexpressible. Good itself, which has life from the Lord, or which is life, is that which flows in and disposes.

When therefore these vessels, which are to be varied as to forms, are as before said in a contrary position and direction in respect to the life, it is evident that they must be reduced to a position in accordance with the life, or into compliance with it. This cannot possibly be effected so long as the man is in that state into which he is born, and to which he has reduced himself; for the vessels are not obedient, being obstinately resistant, and hardening themselves against the heavenly order according to which the life acts; for the good which moves them, and with which they comply, is of the love of self and of the world; which good, from the gross heat that is in it, causes them to be of such a quality; and therefore before they can be rendered compliant and fit to receive anything of the life of the Lord's love, they must be softened. This softening is effected by no other means than temptations; for temptations remove all that is of the love of self and of contempt for others in comparison with self, consequently all that is of self-glory, and also of hatred and revenge on this account. When therefore the vessels have been somewhat tempered and subdued by temptations, they begin to become yielding to, and compliant with, the life of the Lord's love, which continually flows in with man.

Hence then it is that good begins to be conjoined with truths; first in the rational man, and afterwards in the natural; for as before said truths are nothing else than perceptions of the variations of form according to states that are continually being changed; and these perceptions are from the life which flows in. This is the reason why man is regenerated, that is, made new, by temptations; or what is the same, by spiritual combats; and that he is afterwards gifted with another nature; being made mild, humble, simple, and contrite in heart.  From these considerations it may now be seen what use temptations promote, namely, that good from the Lord may not only flow in, but may also dispose the vessels to obedience, and thus conjoin itself with them. ... truths are vessels receptive of good....

But as regards the Lord, who in the supreme sense is treated of, He by the most grievous temptation combats reduced all things in Himself into Divine order, insomuch that there remained nothing at all of the human which He had derived from the mother, so that He was not made new as are other men, but altogether Divine.  For the man who is made new by regeneration still retains in himself an inclination to evil, and even evil itself; but is withheld from evil by an influx of the life of the Lord's love, and this with a force exceeding great; whereas the Lord utterly cast out all the evil that was hereditary to Him from the mother, and made Himself Divine, even as to the vessels, that is, as to truths. This is that which in the Word is called "glorification."

(Arcana Coelestia 3318)

Having a Just Idea of God

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How important it is to have a correct idea of God can be known from the truth that the idea of God constitutes the inmost of thought with all who have religion, for all things of religion and all things of worship look to God.  And since God, universally and in particular, is in all things of religion and of worship, without a proper idea of God, no communication with the heavens is possible.

From this it is that in the spiritual world every nation has its place allotted in accordance with its idea of God as a Man; for in this idea, and in no other, is the idea of the Lord.

That man's state of life after death is according to the idea of God in which he has become confirmed, is manifest from the opposite of this, namely, that the denial of God, and, in the Christian world, the denial of the Divinity of the Lord, constitutes hell.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 13)

For They Were Idolaters

From a portion of a passage in Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
 

The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. (Gen 31:53)

... why it is here said, "the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father" (that is, of Terah) and "the Dread of Isaac," Jacob's father, is that the sons of Terah acknowledged this number of gods, for they were idolaters.  And it was a peculiarity in that house that each family worshiped its own god. This is the reason why it is here said, "the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father, and the Dread of Isaac."

Nevertheless it was enjoined upon the family of Abraham to acknowledge Jehovah as their God; and yet they did not acknowledge Him otherwise than as another god, by whom they might distinguish themselves from the Gentiles, thus they acknowledged Jehovah merely as to the name, and it was in consequence of this that they so often fell away to other gods, as may be seen from the historic parts of the Word.  The reason of this merely nominal acknowledgment was that they were solely in externals, and what internal things were they knew not at all, and did not desire to know.

Insofar as they were concerned the very rituals of their church were merely idolatrous, because they were separated from internal things; for when separated from its internal every ritual of the church is idolatrous.  Nevertheless what is genuine of the church could be represented by them; for representations do not regard the person, but the thing.

Yet in order that a representative church might come into existence, and that there might thus be some communication of the Lord through heaven with man, it was of especial importance that they should be kept in the acknowledgment of Jehovah, if not in heart, still with the mouth; for with them the representatives did not issue from internal, but from external things; and it was in this way that they had communication with the Lord; quite otherwise than in the genuine church, in which the communication is effected by means of internal things. For this reason their Divine worship did not at all affect their souls, that is, did not make them blessed in the other life, but only prosperous in this world.

Therefore in order that they might be kept in these external things, there were so many miracles performed among them, which would never have taken place if they had been in internal things; and for this reason they were so many times driven to their worship by punishments, captivities, and threats; whereas no one is driven by the Lord to internal worship, but this is implanted through freedom. Their principal external was that they should confess Jehovah; for Jehovah was the Lord, who was represented in all things of that church.

(Arcana Coelestia 4208)

Seeing and Touching the 'First' Threshold of Wisdom

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Among the ancients, who were in congruent rituals, the feasts that were made in the evening, that is, the suppers, signified nothing else than the state of initiation which precedes conjunction, which state relatively to the state of conjunction is obscure. For during man's initiation into truth and thence into good, all that he learns is obscure to him; but when good is being conjoined with him, and he regards truth therefrom, it then becomes clear to him, and this successively more and more; for now he is no longer in doubt as to whether a thing exists, or whether it is so; but he knows that it exists, and that it is so.

When man is in this state, he then begins to know innumerable things, for he now proceeds from the good and truth which he believes and perceives as from a center to the circumferences; and in proportion as he proceeds, in the same proportion he sees the things which are round about, and successively more and more widely, for he is constantly pushing out and widening the boundaries. Thenceforth also he commences from every subject in the space within the boundaries; and from these as from new centers he throws out new circumferences, and so on. In this way the light of truth from good increases immeasurably, and becomes like a continuous lucidity, for the man is then in the light of heaven, which is from the Lord. But with those who are in doubt and in discussion as to whether a thing exists, and whether it is so, these innumerable, nay, illimitable things do not appear one whit; to them all things in both general and particular are utterly obscure, and are scarcely regarded as one really existing thing, but rather as one thing the existence of which is doubtful. In such a state is human wisdom and intelligence at this day, when he is deemed wise who can reason with ingenuity as to whether a thing exists; and he is deemed still wiser who can reason that it does not exist.

For example take the proposition that there is an internal sense of the Word, which is called mystical: until this is believed, it is impossible for men to know the least of the innumerable things which are in the internal sense, and which are so many as to fill the whole heaven with an infinite variety.

Another example is that the man who reasons concerning the Divine Providence, as to whether it is only universal, and not in the singulars, cannot possibly know the innumerable arcana of Providence, which are as many in number as are the contingencies of everyone's life from first to last, and from the creation of the world to its end; nay, even to eternity.

Again: he who reasons as to whether it is possible for anyone to be in good, seeing that the will of man is radically depraved, can never know all the arcana relating to regeneration, nor even that a new will is implanted by the Lord, nor the arcana relating to this implantation; and so with everything else. From this it may be known in what obscurity such persons are, and that they do not even see, much less touch, the first threshold of wisdom.

(Arcana Coelestia 3833)

Truth, the Form of Good

A Portion of a Passage in Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... no truth can be produced unless there is a good or delight from which it is.  In good and in delight there is life; but not in truth, except that which it has from good and delight.  From this, truth is formed and begotten, and so is faith, which is of truth, formed and begotten by love, which is of good.  It is with truth exactly as it is with light: except from the sun or a flame there is no light; it is from this that light is formed.  Truth is only the form of good; and faith is only the form of love. Truth is formed from good according to the quality of the good, and faith is formed from love according to the quality of the love or charity.

(Arcana Coelestia 668)