January 14, 2016

How These Blind Themselves

Excerpts from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
... the third posterity of the Most Ancient Church, which began not to believe in things revealed unless they saw and felt that they were so. Their first state, that it was one of doubt.

The most ancient people did not compare all things in man to beasts and birds, but so denominated them; and this their customary manner of speaking remained even in the Ancient Church after the flood, and was preserved among the prophets.


The sensuous things in man they called "serpents" because as serpents live close to the earth, so sensuous things are those next the body. Hence also reasonings concerning the mysteries of faith, founded on the evidence of the senses, were called by them the "poison of a serpent" and the reasoners themselves "serpents;" and because such persons reason much from sensuous, that is, from visible things (such as are things terrestrial, corporeal, mundane, and natural), it is said that "the serpent was more subtle than any wild animal of the field."

In ancient times those were called "serpents" who had more confidence in sensuous things than in revealed ones.
But it is still worse at the present day, for now there are persons who not only disbelieve everything they cannot see and feel, but who also confirm themselves in such incredulity by knowledges [scientifica] unknown to the ancients, and thus occasion in themselves a far greater degree of blindness.

In order that it may be known how those blind themselves, so as afterwards to see and hear nothing, who form their conclusions concerning heavenly matters from the things of sense, of memory-knowledge, and of philosophy, and who are not only "deaf serpents" but also the "flying serpents" frequently spoken of in the Word, which are much more pernicious, we will take as an example what they believe about the spirit.


The sensuous man, or he who only believes on the evidence of his senses, denies the existence of the spirit because he cannot see it, saying, "It is nothing because I do not feel it: that which I see and touch I know exists." The man of memory-knowledge [scientificus], or he who forms his conclusions from memory-knowledges [scientiae], says, What is the spirit, except perhaps vapor or heat, or some other entity of his science, that presently vanishes into thin air? Have not the animals also a body, senses, and something analogous to reason? and yet it is asserted that these will die, while the spirit of man will live. Thus they deny the existence of the spirit.


Philosophers also, who would be more acute than the rest of mankind, speak of the spirit in terms which they themselves do not understand, for they dispute about them, contending that not a single expression is applicable to the spirit which derives anything from what is material, organic, or extended; thus they so abstract it from their ideas that it vanishes from them, and becomes nothing.


The more sane however assert that the spirit is thought; but in their reasonings about thought, in consequence of separating from it all substantiality, they at last conclude that it must vanish away when the body expires.

Thus all who reason from the things of sense, of memory-knowledge, and of philosophy, deny the existence of the spirit, and therefore believe nothing of what is said about the spirit and spiritual things.
Not so the simple in heart: if these are questioned about the existence of spirit, they say they know it exists, because the Lord has said that they will live after death; thus instead of extinguishing their rational, they vivify it by the Word of the Lord.
(Arcana Coelestia 194 - 196)

January 10, 2016

When the Word is Not Understood ~ Is It Believing?

Selection from White Horse ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Word is not understood, except by those who are enlightened. The human rational faculty cannot comprehend Divine, nor even spiritual things, unless it be enlightened by the Lord. Thus they only who are enlightened comprehend the Word.

The Lord enables those who are enlightened to understand truths, and to discern those things which appear to contradict each other. The Word in its literal sense appears inconsistent, and in some places seems to contradict itself. And therefore by those who are not enlightened, it may be so explained and applied, as to confirm any opinion or heresy, and to defend any worldly and corporeal love.

They are enlightened from the Word, who read it from the love of truth and good, but not they who read it from the love of fame, of gain, or of honor, thus from the love of self.
They are enlightened who are in the good of life, and thereby in the affection of truth. They are enlightened whose internal is open, thus who as to their internal man are capable of elevation into the light of heaven.

Enlightenment is an actual opening of the interiors of the mind, and also an elevation into the light of heaven.


There is an influx of holiness from the internal, that is, from the Lord through the internal, with those who regard the Word as holy, though they themselves are ignorant of it. They are enlightened, and see truths in the Word, who are led by the Lord, but not they who are led by themselves. They are led by the Lord, who love truth because it is truth, who also are they that love to live according to Divine truths. The Word is vivified with man according to the life of his love and faith. The things derived from one's own intelligence have no life in themselves, because from man's proprium there is nothing good. They cannot be enlightened who have much confirmed themselves in false doctrine.

It is the understanding which is enlightened. The understanding is the recipient of truth.
In regard to every doctrine of the church, there are ideas of the understanding and of the thought thence, according to which the doctrine is perceived. The ideas of man during his life in the world are natural, because man then thinks in the natural; but still spiritual ideas are concealed therein, with those who are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, and man comes into these ideas after death. Without ideas of the understanding, and of the thought thence, on any subject, there can be no perception. Ideas concerning the things of faith are laid open in the other life, and their quality is seen by the angels, and man is then conjoined with others according to those ideas, so far as they proceed from the affection which is of love. Therefore the Word is not understood except by a rational man; for to believe anything without an idea thereof, and without a rational view of the subject, is only to retain in the memory words destitute of all the life of perception and affection, which is not believing. It is the literal sense of the Word which admits of enlightenment.
(White Horse 7)

January 8, 2016

Put Yourself to the Test

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Reciprocal Application to Good of these Affections of Truth
... these things are of such a nature that they do not fall into any understanding except that which has been instructed, and which perceives delight in the memory-knowledge of such things, and which therefore has spiritual knowledges as its end. Others care nothing for such things, and cannot even apply their minds to them. For they who have worldly and earthly things as their end, cannot withdraw their senses from them; and even if they did so, they would perceive what is undelightful; in which case they would be departing and withdrawing from the things they have as their end, that is, which they love.

Let anyone who is of such a nature put himself to the test, as to whether he desires to know how good adjoins itself to the affections of truth; and how the affections of truth apply themselves to good; and whether knowing this is irksome to him or not; and he will say that such things are of no benefit to him, and that he apprehends nothing about them.


But if such things are told him as relate to his business in the world, even though they are of the most abstruse character, or if he be told the nature of another man's affections, and how he may thereby join the man to himself by adapting himself both mentally and orally, this he not only apprehends, but also has a perception of the interior things connected with the matter. In like manner he who studies from affection to investigate the abstruse things of the sciences, loves to look and does look into things still more intricate. But when spiritual good and truth are in question, he feels the subject irksome and turns his back on it. These things have been said in order that the quality of the existing man of the church may be known.

(Arcana Coelestia 4096:2,3)

January 5, 2016

All Enlightenment from the Word is Rejected Because ...

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
It is believed by most persons within the church that the Lord came into the world in order to reconcile the Father by the passion of the cross, and that afterward those might be accepted for whom He should intercede, and also that He released man from damnation by His having alone fulfilled the law, which otherwise would have condemned everyone; and thus that all would be saved who held this faith with confidence and trust.
But those who are in any enlightenment from heaven are able to see that it would not be possible for the Divine, which is Love itself and Mercy itself, to cast away the human race from itself and condemn it to hell; nor that it had to be reconciled by its Son's passion of the cross; and that in this way and in no other way it was moved with mercy; and that henceforth the life would not condemn anyone provided he had a confident faith in this reconciliation; and that all salvation is effected from mercy through faith.
Those who so think and believe can see nothing at all. They speak, but understand nothing. They therefore call these things mysteries, which are to be believed, but not apprehended by any understanding. From this it follows that all enlightenment from the Word is rejected that shows the case to be otherwise, because light from heaven cannot enter where there reigns so great a shadow from things that are contradictory to each other. That which is not understood at all is called a "shadow."
But to those who are in enlightenment the Lord grants that they shall understand what they believe; and when they are reading the Word, those are enlightened and understand it, who acknowledge the Lord and love to live according to His commandments; but not those who say that they believe, and do not live; for the Lord flows into the life of man and from this into his faith, but not into faith separate from life.
Consequently, those who are enlightened by the Lord through the Word understand that the Lord came into the world in order to subjugate the hells, and reduce into order all things there and in the heavens; and that this could not possibly be done except by means of the Human; for from this He could fight against the hells; but not from the Divine without the Human; and also that He might glorify His Human in order that He might thereby forever keep all things in the order into which He had reduced them. From this comes the salvation of man, for the hells are round every man, because everyone is born into evils of every kind, and where evils are, there are the hells; and unless these were cast back by the Divine power of the Lord, no one could ever have been saved. That this is so the Word teaches, and all those apprehend who admit the Lord into their life; and these as before said are those who acknowledge Him, and love to live according to His commandments. ...
To be withdrawn from evils, to be regenerated, and thus to be saved, is mercy, which is not, as is believed, immediate, but mediate, that is, for those who desist from evils, and so admit from the Lord the truth of faith and the good of love into their life. Immediate mercy, namely, such as would be for everyone merely at God's good pleasure, is contrary to Divine order; and that which is contrary to Divine order is contrary to God, because order is from God, and His Divine in heaven is order.
To receive order into one's self is to be saved, and this is effected solely by living according to the Lord's commandments.
Man is regenerated to the end that he may receive into himself the order of heaven, and he is regenerated by means of faith and the life of faith, which is charity. He who has order in himself is in heaven, and also is heaven in a certain image; but he who has it not is in hell, and is hell in a certain image. The one cannot possibly be changed and transferred into the other by immediate mercy, for they are opposites, because evil is opposite to good, and in good there are life and heaven, but in evil there are death and hell. That the one cannot be transferred into the other is taught by the Lord in Luke:
Abraham said unto the rich man in hell, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that those who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can those who are there pass over to us (Luke 16:26).
Moreover, if immediate mercy were possible, all in the world would be saved, without exception, and there would be no hell, for the Lord is mercy itself, because He is love itself, which wills the salvation of all, and the death of no one.

(Arcana Coelestia 10659)

January 4, 2016

The Understanding of the Word is According to the State of the Man Who Reads It

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Word in itself is Divine truth, but the understanding of it is according to the state of the man who reads it. A man who is not in good perceives nothing of the good in it, and a man who is not in truths sees nothing of the truth in it; the cause of this, therefore, is not in the Word, but in him who reads it.
(Apocalypse Explained 373:2)

The Nature of the Understanding of the Word

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
In the Word are all truths of heaven and the church, yea, all the secrets of wisdom that the angels of heaven possess; but no one sees these unless he is in the good of love to the Lord and in the good of love towards the neighbor.  Those who are not, see truths here and there, but do not understand them.  They have a perception and idea of them wholly different from that which pertains to these same truths in themselves.  Although, therefore, they see or know truths, still truths are not truths with them, but falsities; for truths are not truths from their sound or utterance, but from an idea and perception of them.

When truths are implanted in good it is different.  Then truths appear in their own form, for truth is the form of good.  From this it may be concluded what the nature of the understanding of the Word is with those who make faith alone the sole means of salvation, and cast behind the back the good of life, or the good of charity. 
It has been found that those who have confirmed themselves in this, both in doctrine and life, have not even a single right idea of truth.  This, moreover, is why they do not know what good is, what charity and love are, what the neighbor is, what heaven and hell are, that they are to live after death as men, nor, indeed, what regeneration is, what baptism is, and many other things; yea, they are in such blindness respecting God Himself that they worship three in thought, and not one except merely with the mouth, not knowing that the Father of the Lord is the Divine in Him, and that the Holy Spirit is the Divine from Him.

These things are said to make known that there is no understanding of the Word where there is no good. It is here said that to him that sat upon a red horse, it was given "to take peace from the earth," because "peace" signifies a peaceful state of the mind [mens] and tranquillity of the disposition [animus] from the conjunction of good and truth; therefore "to take away peace" signifies an unpeaceful and untranquil state from the disjunction of good and truth, which is the cause of internal dissensions; for when good is separated from truth evil takes its place; and evil loves not truth but falsity; because every falsity belongs to evil, as every truth to good; when, therefore, such a person sees a truth in the Word or hears it from another, the evil of his love, and thus of his will, strives against the truth, and then he either rejects or perverts it, or by ideas from the evil so obscures it that at length he sees nothing of truth in the truth, however much it may sound like truth when he utters it. This is the origin of all dissensions, controversies, and heresies in the church....

(Apocalypse Explained 365:4)

January 2, 2016

When Means are Loved and Not Ends

Passages from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
To believe those things which the Word teaches, or which the doctrine of the church teaches, and not to live according to them, appears as if it were faith, and some also suppose that they are saved by this faith; but no one is saved by this alone, for it is Persuasive Faith, the quality of which shall now be told.

There is Persuasive Faith when the Word and the doctrine of the church are believed and loved, not for the sake of serving the neighbor, that is, one's fellow citizen, our country, the church, heaven, and the Lord Himself; consequently not for the sake of life, for serving these is life; but for the sake of gain, honors, and the reputation of learning, as ends. Wherefore they who are in this faith do not have in view the Lord and heaven, but themselves and the world.


They who aspire after great things in the world, and covet many things, are in a stronger persuasion that what the doctrine of the church teaches is true, than are those who do not aspire after great things and covet many things. The reason is that to the former the doctrine of the church is merely a means to their ends; and the means are loved and also believed in proportion as the ends are desired.


In itself, however, the fact is that insofar as such men are in the fire of the loves of self and of the world, and speak, preach, and act from this fire, so far they are in that persuasion, and they then know no otherwise than that what they say is so. But when they are not in the fire of these loves, they believe nothing, and many of them deny everything; from which it is evident that a Persuasive Faith is a faith of the lips, and not of the heart; thus that in itself it is no faith.


They who are in Persuasive Faith do not know from any internal enlightenment whether what they teach is true or false; nay, they do not care, provided they are believed by the common people; for they are in no affection of truth for the sake of truth. Moreover, above all others they defend faith alone; and the good of faith, which is charity, they make of importance only insofar as they can profit by its means.


They who are in Persuasive Faith abandon faith, if they are deprived of honors and gains, provided their reputation is not endangered; for Persuasive Faith is not within the man, but stands outside, in the memory only, out of which it is drawn while it is being taught. And therefore after death this faith vanishes, together with its truths; for then only that much of faith remains which is within the man; that is, which has been rooted in good; thus has been made of the life.


They who are in Persuasive Faith are meant by those of whom we read in these passages:
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name have cast out demons, and in Thy name done many mighty deeds? But then will I confess unto them, I know you not, ye workers of iniquity (Matt. 7:22, 23).


Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:26, 27).


They are also meant in Matthew by the five foolish virgins, who had no oil in their lamps:
Afterward came the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answering said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you not (Matt. 25:11, 12);
"oil in the lamps" denotes good in the faith.

(Arcana Coelestia 9363 - 9369)