With the Lord ALL is Jehovah

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the universal heaven they know no other Father than the Lord, because He and the Father are one, as He Himself has said:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.  Philip saith, Show us the Father; Jesus saith to him, Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip?  He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?  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 14:6, 8-11).

It is the Lord's Human Essence which is called the "Son of man;" which also, after the combats of the temptations, was united to His Divine Essence, so that it was itself also made Jehovah; wherefore in heaven they know no other Jehovah the Father than the Lord. With the Lord all is Jehovah; not only His internal and His interior man, but also the external man, and the very body; and therefore He alone rose into heaven with the body also; as is sufficiently evident in the Gospels, where His resurrection is treated of; as also from the words of the Lord Himself:

Wherefore do thoughts arise in your hearts?  See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have.  And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet  (Luke 24:38-40).

(Arcana Cœlestia 15; 1729:2)

The Lord's Love Toward the Whole Human Race

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The temptations ... that the Lord sustained in His childhood, concerning which nothing is related in the Word of the New Testament, except concerning His temptation in the wilderness, or soon after He came out of the wilderness, and finally concerning His last temptation in Gethsemane and what then followed.

The Lord's life, from His earliest childhood even to the last hour of His life in the world, was continual temptation and continual victory, is evident from many things in the Word of the Old Testament; and that it did not cease with the temptation in the wilderness is evident from what is said in Luke:

And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from Him for a season (Luke 4:13)

as also from the fact that He was tempted even to the death on the cross, and thus to the last hour of His life in the world. Hence it is evident that the whole of the Lord's life in the world, from His earliest childhood, was continual temptation and continual victory. The last was when He prayed on the cross for His enemies, and thus for all in the whole world.

In the Word of the Lord's life, in the Gospels, none but the last is mentioned, except His temptation in the wilderness. More were not disclosed to the disciples. The things that were disclosed appear in the sense of the letter so slight as to be scarcely anything; for to speak and to answer in this manner is no temptation, when yet

His temptation was more grievous than can ever be comprehended and believed by any human mind.

No one can know what temptation is except the one who has been in it. The temptation that is related in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13, contains all temptations in a summary; namely —

that from love toward the whole human race, the Lord fought against the loves of self and of the world, with which the hells were filled.

All temptation is an assault upon the love in which the man is, and the temptation is in the same degree as is the love. If the love is not assaulted, there is no temptation.  To destroy anyone's love is to destroy his very life; for the love is the life.  The Lord's life was love toward the whole human race, and was indeed so great, and of such a quality, as to be nothing but pure love.  Against this His life, continual temptations were admitted, as before said, from His earliest childhood to His last hour in the world.

The love which was the Lord's veriest life is signified by His "hungering," and by the devil's saying,

If Thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread and by Jesus answering that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:2-4; Matt. 4:2-4).

That He fought against the love of the world, or all things that are of the love of the world, is signified by:

The devil took Him up into a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee and the glory of them, for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it; if Thou therefore wilt worship before me, all shall be Thine. But Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve (Luke 4:5-8; Matt 4:8-10).

That He fought against the love of self, and all things that are of the love of self, is signified by this:

The devil took Him into the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and upon their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Matt. 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-12).

Continual victory is signified by its being said that after the temptations, angels came and ministered unto Him (Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:13).

In brief, the Lord from His earliest childhood up to the last hour of His life in the world, was assaulted by all the hells, against which He continually fought, and subjugated and overcame them, and this solely from love toward the whole human race. And because this love was not human but Divine, and because such as is the greatness of the love, such is that of the temptation, it may be seen how grievous the combats were, and how great the ferocity on the part of the hells.

(Arcana Cœlestia 1690)

Such as is a Man's Love, Such is His Life

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip, and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. Genesis 11:6

Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip.

...The people is said to be "one," and their "lip one," when all have as their end the common good of society, the common good of the church, and the kingdom of the Lord; for when this is the case the Lord is in the end, and all are a one from Him.

But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a man whose end is his own good; the Own [proprium] itself of man estranges the Lord, because thereby the man twists and turns the common good of society, and that of the church itself, and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself, insomuch that it is as if it existed for him. He thus takes away from the Lord what is His, and puts himself in His place. When this condition reigns in a man, there is the like of it in every single thought he has, and even in the least particulars of his thoughts; for such is the case with whatever is regnant in any man.

This does not appear so manifestly in the life of the body as it does in the other life - for there whatever is regnant in anyone manifests itself by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him, and which is of this character because it exhales from every single thing in him.

The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates to itself, and, as is said there, absorbs everything that is favorable to itself, and therefore it absorbs all the delight of the surrounding spirits, and destroys all their freedom, so that such a person has to be banished from society.

But when the people is one, and the lip one, that is, when the common good of all is regarded, one person never appropriates to himself another's delight, or destroys another's freedom, but insofar as he can he promotes and increases it. This is the reason why the heavenly societies are as a one, and this solely through mutual love from the Lord; and the case is the same in the church.

And this is what they begin to do.

That this signifies that now they began to become different, is evident from the connection. To begin to do, here signifies their thought or intention, and consequently their end, as also is evident from the words that next follow, and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. That in the internal sense their end is signified, is because nothing else than the end in a man is regarded by the Lord. Whatever may be his thoughts and deeds - which vary in ways innumerable - provided the end is made good, they are all good; whereas if the end is evil, they are all evil.

It is the end that reigns in everything a man thinks and does.

The angels with a man, being the Lord's angels, rule nothing in the man but his ends; for when they rule these, they rule also his thoughts and actions, seeing that all these are of the end.

The end with a man is his very life.

All things that he thinks and does have life from the end, for, as was said, they are of the end; and therefore such as is the end, such is the man's life.

The end is nothing else than the love; for a man cannot have anything as an end except that which he loves. He who thinks one thing and does another, still has as the end that which he loves;

in the dissimulation itself, or in the deceit, there is the end

which is the love of self or the love of the world, and the derivative delight of his life. From these considerations anyone may conclude that such as is a man's love, such is his life. These therefore are the things signified by "beginning to do."

(Arcana Cœlestia 1316 - 1317)

When 'Self" is the Moving Cause

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No truth is holy unless it comes from good. A man may utter many truths from the Word, and thus from memory, but if it is not love or charity that brings them forth, nothing holy can be predicated of them. But if he has love and charity, then he acknowledges and believes, and this from the heart. And it is the same with faith, of which so many say that it alone saves: if there is no love or charity from which the faith comes, there is no faith.

Love and charity are what make faith holy.

The Lord is in love and charity, but not in faith that is separated from charity. In faith separated is the man himself, in whom there is nothing but uncleanness. For when faith is separated from love, his own praise, or his own advantage, is the moving cause that is in his heart, and from which he speaks. This everyone may know from his own experience. Whoever tells anyone that he loves him, that he prefers him to others, that he acknowledges him as the best of men, and the like, and yet in heart thinks otherwise, does this only with his mouth, and in heart denies, and sometimes makes sport of him. And it is the same with faith. ...

They who in the life of the body have preached the Lord and faith with so much eloquence, together with feigned devoutness, as to astonish their hearers, and have not done it from the heart, in the other life are among those who bear the greatest hatred toward the Lord, and who persecute the faithful.

(Arcana Cœlestia 724)

Truths Full of Goods

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It may be supposed that a man cannot but be saved if truths are full of goods. But be it known that there are very few truths with man, and that if there are any, they have no life unless there are goods in them; and that if there are goods in them, he is saved, but from Mercy.

The truths with man are very few; and the goods which are in them have their quality in accordance with the truths, and the man's life.

Regarded in themselves, truths do not give life. It is goods that give life. Truths are only recipients of life, that is, of good. And therefore no one can ever say that he can be saved by truths (or as the common expression is, by faith alone), unless there is good in the truths which are of faith, and this good that must be in the truths must be the good of charity; hence faith itself, in the internal sense, is nothing else than charity.

As regards people's saying that the acknowledgment of truth is the faith that saves, be it known that with those who live in things contrary to charity, there cannot possibly be any acknowledgment but only persuasion, to which there has been adjoined the life of the love of self or of the world; thus in the acknowledgment they refer to there is not the life of faith, which is that of charity. The worst men of all - from the love of self or the world, that is, for the sake of being eminent above others in what is called intelligence and wisdom, and thus of winning honors, reputation, and gains - can learn the truths of faith, and confirm them by many things; but still with them these truths are dead.

The life of truth, and thus of faith, is solely from the Lord, who is life itself. The Lord's life is mercy, which is that of love toward the universal human race.

In the Lord's life those can in no wise have part who although they profess the truths of faith despise others in comparison with themselves, and who - when their life of the love of self and of the world is touched - hold the neighbor in hatred, and take delight in his loss of wealth, of honor, of reputation, and of life.

But the case with the truths of faith is that by means of them man is regenerated, for they are the veriest vessels recipient of good. Such therefore as are the truths, and such as are the goods in the truths, and such as is their conjunction and the consequent capability of being perfected in the other life, such is the state of blessedness and happiness after death.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 2261)

Can Faith Alone Save?

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Doctrine concerning good is the Doctrine of Charity

Doctrine concerning truth is the Doctrine of Faith.

In general, there is only one doctrine, namely, the doctrine of charity, for all things of faith look to charity. Between charity and faith there is no other difference than that between willing what is good and thinking what is good (for he who wills what is good also thinks what is good), thus than that between the will and the understanding.

They who reflect, know that the will is one thing and the understanding another. This is also known in the learned world, and it plainly appears with those who will evil and yet from thought speak well; from all which it is evident to everyone that the will is one thing, and the understanding another; and thus that the human mind is distinguished into two parts, which do not make a one. Yet man was so created that these two parts should constitute one mind; nor should there be any other distinction (to speak by comparison) than such as there is between a flame and the light from it (love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor being like the flame, and all perception and thought being like the light from it); thus love and charity should be the all of the perception and thought, that is should be in each and all things of them. Perception or thought concerning the quality of love and charity is that which is called faith.

But as the human race began to will what is evil, to hate the neighbor, and to exercise revenges and cruelties, insomuch that that part of the mind which is called the will was altogether destroyed, men began to make a distinction between charity and faith, and to refer to faith all the doctrinal matters that were of their religion, and call them by the single term faith; and at length they went so far as to say that they could be saved by faith alone - by which they meant their doctrinal things - provided they merely believed these, no matter how they might live. Thus was charity separated from faith, which is then nothing else whatever (to speak by comparison) than a kind of light without flame, such as is wont to be the light of the sun in time of winter, which is cold and icy, insomuch that the vegetation of the earth grows torpid and dies; whereas faith from charity is like the light in the time of spring and summer, by which all things germinate and bloom.

This may also be known from the fact that love and charity are celestial flame, and that faith is the spiritual light therefrom. In this manner also do they present themselves to perception and sight in the other life; for there the Lord's celestial manifests itself before the angels by a flaming radiance like that of the sun, and the Lord's spiritual by the light from this radiance, by which also angels and spirits are affected as to their interiors, in accordance with the life of love and charity that appertains to them. This is the source in the other life of joys and happinesses with all their varieties. And all this shows how the case is with the statement that faith alone saves.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2230)

A Man's Entire Life Preaches His Funeral

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How the case is with the salvation of men after their decease, it shall be briefly stated. There are many who say that man is saved by faith, or, in their words, if he only has faith; but for the most part they are those who do not know what faith is. Some suppose that it is mere thought; some that it is an acknowledgment of something to be believed; some that it is the whole doctrine of faith, which is to be believed; and others otherwise. Thus in the bare knowledge of what faith is they wander in error; consequently in the knowledge of what that is by which man is saved.

Faith, however, is not mere thought, nor is it an acknowledgment of something to be believed, nor a knowledge of all things which belong to the doctrine of faith. By these no one can be saved; for they can take root no deeper than in the thought, and thought saves no one, but the life which the man has procured for himself in the world by means of the knowledges of faith.

This life remains; whereas all thought which does not accord with the life perishes, even so as to become none at all. The heavenly consociations are according to lives, and by no means according to thoughts which are not of the life. Thoughts which are not of the life are counterfeit, and such are altogether rejected.

In general, life is twofold, being on the one hand infernal, on the other heavenly. Infernal life is acquired from all those ends, thoughts, and works which flow from the love of self, consequently from hatred against the neighbor; heavenly life, from all those ends, thoughts, and works which are of love toward the neighbor. The latter is the life to which all things that are called faith have regard, and which is procured by all things of faith. All this shows what faith is, namely, that it is charity, for to charity all things lead which are said to be of the doctrine of faith; in it they are all contained, and from it they are all derived. The soul, after the life of the body, is such as its love is.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2228:2, 3)