Hypotheses Respecting Faith and Freedom of Choice

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Conjunction with the Lord is a reciprocal conjunction, that is, that the Lord is in man and man in the Lord. That conjunction is reciprocal, Scripture teaches and reason also sees. As to His conjunction with His Father, the Lord teaches that it is reciprocal, for He says to Philip:

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:10, 11).
That ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:38).
Jesus said, Father, the hour is come glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 17:1).
Father, all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine (John 17:10).

The same is said by the Lord respecting His conjunction with man, namely, that it is reciprocal; for He says:

Abide in Me and I in you; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit (John 15:4, 6).
He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me and I in him (John 6:66).
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).
He that keepeth the commandments of Christ abideth in Him, and He in him (1 John 3:24; 4:13).
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God (1 John 4:15).
If anyone hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Apoc. 3:20).

From these plain statements it is clear that the conjunction of the Lord and man is reciprocal; and because it is reciprocal it necessarily follows, that man ought to conjoin himself to the Lord, in order that the Lord may conjoin himself to man; and that otherwise conjunction is not effected, but withdrawal and a consequent separation, yet not on the Lord's part, but on man's part. In order that such reciprocal conjunction may exist, there is granted to man freedom of choice, giving him the ability to walk in the way to heaven or in the way to hell. From this freedom that is given to man flows his ability to reciprocate, which enables him to conjoin himself with the Lord, and also with the devil. ...

It is to be lamented that the reciprocal conjunction of the Lord and man, although it stands out so clearly in the Word, is unknown in the Christian church. It is unknown because of certain hypotheses respecting faith and freedom of choice. The hypothesis respecting faith is that it is bestowed upon man without his contributing anything toward the acquisition of it, or adapting and applying himself, any more than a stock, to the reception of it. The hypothesis respecting freedom of choice is that man does not possess a single grain of freedom of choice in spiritual things. But that the reciprocal conjunction of the Lord and man, on which depends the salvation of the human race, may not remain longer unknown, necessity itself enjoins its disclosure, which may be best effected by examples, because they illustrate.

There are two kinds of reciprocation by which conjunction is effected: - one is alternate and the other mutual. The alternate reciprocation by which conjunction is effected, may be illustrated by the action of the lungs in breathing. Man draws in the air and thereby expands the chest; then he expels the inhaled air and thereby contracts the chest. This inhalation and the consequent expansion is effected by means of the pressure of the air proportionate to its column; while the expulsion and the consequent contraction are effected by means of the ribs by the power of the muscles. Such is the reciprocal conjunction of the air and the lungs, and on it depends the life of all bodily sense and motion, for these swoon when respiration ceases.

Reciprocal conjunction, which is effected by alteration, may also be illustrated by the conjunction of the heart with the lungs and of the lungs with the heart. The heart from its right chamber pours the blood into the lungs, and the lungs pour it back again into the left chamber of the heart; thus is that reciprocal conjunction effected on which the life of the whole body is altogether dependent. There is a like conjunction of the blood with the heart, and vice versa. The blood of the whole body flows through the veins into the heart, and from the heart it flows out through the arteries into the whole body; action and reaction effect this conjunction. There is a like action and reaction (by which there is a constant conjunction) between the embryo and the mother's womb.

But there is no such reciprocal conjunction of the Lord and man. That is a mutual conjunction, which is effected not by action and reaction, but by cooperation. For the Lord acts, and from Him man receives action, and operates as if of himself, even by the Lord from himself. This operation of man from the Lord is imputed to him as his own, because he is held constantly by the Lord in freedom of choice. The freedom of choice resulting from this is the ability to will and to think from the Lord, that is, from the Word, and also the ability to will and to think from the devil, that is, contrary to the Lord and the Word. This freedom the Lord gives to man to enable him to conjoin himself reciprocally with the Lord, and by conjunction be gifted with eternal life and blessedness, since this, without reciprocal conjunction, would not be possible.

This reciprocal conjunction, which is mutual, may also be illustrated by various things in man and in the world. Such is the conjunction of soul and body in every man; such is the conjunction of will and action, also of thought and speech; such is the mutual conjunction of the two eyes, the two ears, and the two nostrils. That the mutual conjunction of the two eyes is in a manner reciprocal, is evident from the optic nerve, in which fibers from both hemispheres of the cerebrum are folded together, and thus folded together they extend to both eyes. It is the same with the ears and nostrils.

There exists a like reciprocal and mutual conjunction between light and the eye, between sound and the ear, odor and the nose, taste and the tongue, touch and the body; for the eye is in the light and the light in the eye, sound is in the ear and the ear in the sound, odor is in the nose and the nose in odor, taste is in the tongue and the tongue in taste, and touch is in the body and the body in touch. ... in short, such is the reciprocal conjunction of the end and the cause, and such also is that of the cause and the effect.

(Conjugial Love 371)

Re-born; from the Former to the New Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... It is known that man is born into the nature of his parents, and of his grandfathers, and also of those who have been his ancestors for ages; thus he is born into the hereditary evil of them all successively accumulated, insomuch that as regards what is from himself he is nothing but evil. The result of this is that as to both understanding and will man has been utterly destroyed; and of himself wills nothing of good, and consequently understands nothing of truth; and therefore that which he calls good and believes to be good, is evil; and that which he calls truth and believes to be truth, is falsity. For example: loving himself above others; desiring better for himself than for others; coveting what belongs to another; taking thought for himself alone, and not for others except for the sake of himself. As of himself man is desirous of these things he therefore calls them goods, and also truths; and what is more, if anyone injures or endeavors to injure him in respect to these goods and truths as he calls them, he hates him, and also burns with revenge toward him, desires and even seeks his ruin, and feels delight in it, and this in proportion as he actually confirms himself in such things, that is, in proportion as he more frequently brings them into actual exercise.

When such a person comes into the other life he has the same desires; the very nature which he has contracted in the world by actual life remains, and the delight just referred to is plainly perceived. For this reason such a man cannot be in any heavenly society, in which everyone desires better for others than for himself, but has to be in some infernal society where the delight is similar to his own.  This nature is that which must be rooted out while the man lives in the world, which cannot possibly be done except by the Lord through regeneration; that is, by his receiving a totally new will and derivative new understanding; or in other words by being made new in respect to both these faculties. But in order that this may be effected, the man must first of all be reborn as a little child, and must learn what is evil and false, and also what is good and true; for without knowledge he cannot be imbued with any good; for from himself he acknowledges nothing to be good but what is evil, and nothing to be true but what is false.

To this end such knowledges are insinuated into him as are not altogether contrary to those which he had before; as that all love begins from self; that self is to be taken care of first and then others; that good is to be done to such as appear poor and distressed outwardly, no matter what may be their inward character; in like manner that good is to be done to widows and orphans simply because they are so called; and lastly, to enemies in general, whoever they may be; and that thereby a man may merit heaven. These and other such knowledges are those of the infancy of his new life, and are of such a nature that while they derive somewhat from his former life or the nature of his former life, they also derive somewhat from his new life into which he is thereby being introduced; and hence they are such as to admit into them whatever things are conducive to the formation of a new will and a new understanding. These are the lowest goods and truths, from which those who are being regenerated commence, and because these admit into themselves truths that are more interior or nearer to Divine truths, by their means there may also be rooted out the falsities which the man had before believed to be truths.

But they who are being regenerated do not learn such truths simply as memory-knowledges, but as life, for they do these truths; but that they do them is from the beginning of the new will which the Lord insinuates entirely without their knowledge; and insofar as they receive of this new will, so far they receive of these knowledges, and bring them into act, and believe them; but insofar as they do not receive of the new will, so far they are indeed capable of learning such things, but not of bringing them into act, because they care merely for memory-knowledge, and not for life.

This is the state of infancy and childhood in respect to the new life which is about to succeed in place of the former life; but the state of the adolescence and youth of this life is that regard is no longer had to any person as he appears in the external form but to his quality in respect to good; first in civil life, next in moral life, and lastly in spiritual life; and good is that which the man then begins to hold and love in the prior place, and from good to love the person; and at last, when he is still further perfected, he takes care to do good to those who are in good, and this in accordance with the quality of the good in them, and at last he feels delight in doing good to them, because he feels delight in good, and pleasantness in the things that confirm it. These confirmatory things he acknowledges as truths; and they also are the truths of his new understanding, which flow from the goods which are of his new will.

In the degree that he feels delight in this good, and pleasantness in these truths, he has a feeling of what is undelightful in the evils of his former life, and of what is unpleasing in its falsities; and the result is that a separation takes place of the things which are of the former will and the former understanding from the things that are of the new will and the new understanding; and this not in accordance with the affection of knowing such things, but in accordance with the affection of doing them. Consequently the man then sees that the truths of his infancy were relatively inverted, and that the same had been by little and little brought back into a different order, namely, to be inversely subordinate, so that those which at first were in the prior place are now in the posterior place; thus that by those truths which were the truths of his infancy and childhood, the angels of God had ascended as by a ladder from earth to heaven; but afterwards, by the truths of his adult age, the angels of God descended as by a ladder from heaven to earth.

... all goods and truths descend from the Lord, and ascend to Him; that is, that He is the first and the last; for man has been so created that the Divine things of the Lord may descend through him down to the ultimates of nature, and from the ultimates of nature may ascend to Him; so that man might be a medium that unites the Divine with the world of nature, and the world of nature with the Divine; and that thus the very ultimate of nature might live from the Divine through man as the uniting medium; which would be the case if man had lived according to Divine order.

That man was so created is evident from the fact that as to his body he is a little world, for all the arcana of the world of nature are stored within him; for every hidden property there is in the ether and its modifications is stored within the eye; and every property in the air is stored within the ear; and whatever invisible thing floats and acts in the air is in the organ of smell where it is perceived; and whatever invisible thing there is in waters and other fluids is in the organ of taste; and the very changes of state are in the sense of touch everywhere in the body; besides that things still more hidden would be perceived in his interior organs if his life were in accordance with order. Hence it is evident that there would be a descent of the Divine through man into the ultimate of nature, and from the ultimate of nature there would be an ascent to the Divine, if with faith of heart, that is, with love, man would only acknowledge the Lord as his first and last end.

In such a state were the most ancient people, who were celestial men; for whatever they apprehended by any sense was to them a means for thinking concerning the things of the Lord; thus concerning the Lord and His kingdom; and from this came the delight they derived from things worldly and terrestrial .... Moreover when they thus contemplated the lower and ultimate things of nature, these appeared before their eyes as if they were alive; for the life from which they descended was in their internal sight and perception, and the objects presented to their eyes were as images of this life; which images, although inanimate, to them were thereby animated. Such is the perception the celestial angels have regarding all things in the world; as has frequently been given me to perceive; and hence also little children have such a perception .... From all this we can see what is the quality of those through whom the Divine things of the Lord descend down to the ultimates of nature, and from the ultimates of nature ascend to Him, and represent the Divine communication and the consequent conjunction which in the supreme sense are signified by the "angels ascending and descending on the ladder set on the earth, whose head reached unto heaven, and upon which stood Jehovah."

(Arcana Coelestia 3701-3702)

The Lord's Presence According to Reception

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The distance between the [spiritual] sun and the angels in the spiritual world is an appearance according to reception by them of Divine love and Divine wisdom.

All fallacies which prevail with the evil and the simple arise from appearances which have been confirmed. So long as appearances remain appearances, they are apparent truths, according to which every one may think and speak; but when they are accepted as real truths, which is done when they are confirmed, then apparent truths become falsities and fallacies. For example: It is an appearance that the sun is borne around the earth daily, and follows yearly the path of the ecliptic. So long as this appearance is not confirmed it is an apparent truth, according to which any one may think and speak; for he may say that the sun rises and sets and thereby causes morning, midday, evening, and night; also that the sun is now in such or such a degree of the ecliptic or of its altitude, and thereby causes spring, summer, autumn, and winter. But when this appearance is confirmed as the real truth, then the confirmer thinks and utters a falsity springing from a fallacy. It is the same with innumerable other appearances, not only in natural, civil, and moral, but also in spiritual affairs.

It is the same with the distance of the sun of the spiritual world, which sun is the first proceeding of the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. The truth is that there is no distance, but that the distance is an appearance according to the reception of Divine Love and Wisdom by the angels in their degree. ... distances, in the spiritual world, are appearances ... the Divine is not in space; ... the Divine, apart from space, fills all spaces. If there are no spaces, there are no distances, or, what is the same, if spaces are appearances, distances also are appearances, for distances are of space.

The sun of the spiritual world appears at a distance from the angels, because they receive Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in the measure of heat and light that is adequate to their states. For an angel, because created and finite, cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light, such as is in the sun; if he did he would be entirely consumed. The Lord, therefore, is received by angels in a degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. The following may serve for illustration. An angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the angels of the third heaven; for if he ascends and enters their heaven, he falls into a kind of swoon, and his life as it were, strives with death; the reason is that he has a less degree of love and wisdom, and the heat of his love and the light of his wisdom are in the same degree as his love and wisdom. What, then, would be the result if an angel were even to ascend toward the sun, and come into its fire? On account of the differences of reception of the Lord by the angels, the heavens also appear separate from one another. The highest heaven, which is called the third, appears above the second, and the second above the first; not that the heavens are apart, but they appear to be apart, for the Lord is present equally with those who are in the lowest heaven and with those who are in the third heaven. That which causes the appearance of distance is not in the Lord but in the subjects, that is, the angels.

That this is so can hardly be comprehended by a natural idea, because in such there is space, but by a spiritual idea, such as angels have, it can be comprehended, because in such there is no space. Yet even by a natural idea this much can be comprehended, that love and wisdom (or what is the same, the Lord, who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom) cannot advance through spaces, but is present with each one according to reception. That the Lord is present with all, He teaches in Matthew 28:20, and that He makes His abode with those who love Him, in John 14:23.

As this has been proved by means of the heavens and the angels, it may seem a matter of too exalted wisdom; but the same is true of men. Men, as to the interiors of their minds, are warmed and illuminated by that same sun. They are warmed by its heat and illuminated by its light in the measure in which they receive love and wisdom from the Lord. The difference between angels and men is that angels are under the spiritual sun only, but men are not only under that sun, but also under the sun of this world; for men's bodies can begin and continue to exist only under both suns; but not so the bodies of angels, which are spiritual.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 108 - 112)

The Conjoining Medium

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... the presence of the Lord with the man ...

The Lord speaks with every man, for whatever a man wills and thinks that is good and true, is from the Lord. There are with every man at least two evil spirits and two angels. The evil spirits excite his evils, and the angels inspire things that are good and true. Every good and true thing inspired by the angels is of the Lord; thus the Lord is continually speaking with man, but quite differently with one man than with another. With those who suffer themselves to be led away by evil spirits, the Lord speaks as if absent, or from afar, so that it can scarcely be said that He is speaking; but with those who are being led by the Lord, He speaks as more nearly present; which may be sufficiently evident from the fact that no one can ever think anything good and true except from the Lord.

The presence of the Lord is predicated according to the state of love toward the neighbor and of faith in which the man is. In love toward the neighbor the Lord is present, because He is in all good; but not so much in faith, so called, without love. Faith without love and charity is a separated or disjoined thing. Wherever there is conjunction there must be a conjoining medium, which is nothing else than love and charity, as must be evident to all from the fact that the Lord is merciful to everyone, and loves everyone, and wills to make everyone happy to eternity. He therefore who is not in such love that he is merciful to others, loves them, and wills to make them happy, cannot be conjoined with the Lord, because he is unlike Him and not at all in His image. To look to the Lord by faith, as they say, and at the same time to hate the neighbor, is not only to stand afar off, but is also to have the abyss of hell between themselves and the Lord, into which they would fall if they should approach nearer, for hatred to the neighbor is that infernal abyss which is between.

The presence of the Lord is first possible with a man when he loves the neighbor. The Lord is in love; and so far as a man is in love, so far the Lord is present; and so far as the Lord is present, so far He speaks with the man. Man knows no otherwise than that he thinks from himself, whereas he has not a single idea, nor even the least bit of an idea, from himself; but he has what is evil and false through evil spirits from hell, and what is good and true through angels from the Lord. Such is the influx with man, from which is his life and the interaction of his soul with the body.

(Arcana Coelestia 904)

Their Endeavor and Intention to Subjugate Those Who are in Good and Truth

Selections from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is the Lord alone also who fights in the men who are in the combats of temptations, and who overcomes. Man from his own power can effect nothing at all against evil or infernal spirits; for they are so connected with the hells that if one were overcome, another would rush in, and so on forever. They are like the sea which presses upon every part of a dike; and if the dike should be broken through by a cleft or a crack, the sea would never cease to burst through and overflow, until nothing was left standing. So would it be with man unless the Lord alone sustained in him the combats of temptations.

(Arcana Coelestia 1692:2)

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And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve. [Exodus 1:13]  That this signifies an intention to subjugate, is evident from the signification of "making to serve," as being subjugation, here the intention to subjugate, because they are in the continual endeavor to subjugate, but in no wise prevail against the good; from the signification of the "Egyptians," as being separated memory-knowledges which are opposed to the truths of the church ... and from the signification of the "sons of Israel," as being the church .... Hence it is evident that by "the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve" is signified the intention to subjugate by those who are in separated memory-knowledges which are opposed to the truths of the church.

As regards the intention to subjugate, such as exists with the evil who are from hell, I have also been given to know this. Such is their endeavor and intention to subjugate those who are in good and truth that it cannot be described; for they make use of all malice, all cunning and fraud, all deceit, and all cruelty, so great and of such a nature that if these were told in part only, hardly anyone in the world could believe it; so cunning and artful are their devices, and so execrable. In a word, these infernals are of such a nature that they cannot possibly be resisted by any man, nor even by any angel, but by the Lord alone. The reason why they are possessed with such an endeavor and intention is that all their delight of life, thus their life itself, consists in doing evil; and therefore nothing else occupies their thoughts, consequently they intend nothing else. They are quite unable to do what is good, because this is repugnant to them: if they do what is good, it is for the sake of self, thus is done to self.

From such spirits the hells are at this day immensely increased, and wonderful to say, especially from those who are within the church, on account of the cunning, deceit, hatred, revenge, and adultery, which flourish there more than elsewhere; for within the church cunning is now esteemed ingenious, and adultery honorable, and they who deem otherwise are laughed at. Its being so within the church at this day is a sign that its last time is at hand, for "Except there be an end, no flesh would be saved," according to the Lord's words in Matt. 24:22; because all evil is contagious, and infects, as lees do the lump, thus at last all.

(Arcana Coelestia 6666)

Man's Two Capacities for Life

From Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is because the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom that man has two capacities for life; from one of these he has understanding, from the other will. The capacity from which he has understanding derives everything it has from the influx of wisdom from God, and the capacity from which he has will derives everything it has from the influx of love from God. Man's not being truly wise and not loving rightly does not take away these capacities, but merely closes them up; and so long as they are closed up, although the understanding is still called understanding and the will is called will, they are not such in essence. If these two capacities, therefore, were to be taken away, all that is human would perish; for the human is to think and to speak from thought, and to will and to act from will. From this it is clear that the Divine has its seat in man in these two capacities, the capacity to be wise and the capacity to love (that is, that one may be wise and may love). ...

(Divine Love and Wisdom 30)

Influx from within meets influx from without

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... man is only a recipient of good and truth from the Lord, and of evil and falsity from hell ...

It is illustrated by the following comparisons. The sensories of the body are merely recipient and percipient as if from themselves. The sensory of sight, which is the eye, sees objects out of itself, as it were in close contact with them, although it is the rays of light that, with the wings of ether, convey their forms and colours to the eye; these forms, being perceived by the internal sight, which is called the understanding, are examined in the eye and thus distinguished and known according to their quality. Similarly the sensory of hearing perceives sounds - whether they are words or tones of music - from the place whence they proceed, as if it were there, although the sounds enter from without, and are perceived in the ear by the understanding within. The sensory of smell, also, perceives from within what enters from without, sometimes from a great distance. The sensory of taste also is excited by the food, which externally moves over the tongue. The sensory of touch has no sensation unless it is touched. These five sensories of the body, by virtue of an influx from within, are sensible of the things which enter by influx from without; the influx from within is from the spiritual world, and the influx from without is from the natural world.

With these facts, the laws inscribed on the nature of all things are in agreement, and these laws are as follows:

 (1.) That nothing exists, subsists, is acted upon and moved, by itself, but by something else; whence it follows, that every thing exists, subsists, is acted upon and moved, from the First, who is not from another, but is in Himself the living force, which is life.

 (2.) That nothing can be acted upon and moved, unless it be intermediate between two forces, one of which acts and the other re-acts, thus, unless one acts on the one part, and one on the other; and further, unless one acts from within, and the other from without.

 (3.) And since these two forces, while they are at rest, are in equilibrium, it follows, that nothing can be acted upon or moved, unless it is in equilibrium, and that when it is acted upon, it is not in equilibrium; and further, that every thing acted upon or moved seeks to return to equilibrium.

 (4.) That all activities are changes of state and variations of form, and that the latter are the result of the former.

By state in man we mean his love, and by changes of state the affections of love; by form in man we mean his intelligence, and by variations of form his thoughts; the latter also are from the former.

(Apocalypse Explained 1146 b)