Title: A Way Forward, Part 7

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: In the glorious future predicted in Scripture, increased presence of the Lord will push hell aside, and knowledge of the Lord and spiritual experiences will abound. The Lord's presence will be magnetically attractive to people from all over, and his kingdom will last forever and continually increase. This will be the real exodus.

References:
Revelation 21:1-5
Zechariah 2:4-5
Revelation 22:14-15
Isaiah 35; 11:9
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Joel 2:28-29
1 Kings 8:9-11
Zechariah 8:18-23
Isaiah 2:2-5
Psalms 82:8; 72:6-11
Revelation 11:15
Isaiah 33:20
Daniel 7:13-14
Isaiah 9:6-7; 11; 12

This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.

463. In disclosing his acts to a man after death, the angels to whom the office of searching is given then look into his face, and their search extends through the whole body, beginning with the fingers of one hand, and the other, and thus proceeding through the whole. As I wondered at this the reason was given, namely, that as the single things of the thought and will have been inscribed on the brain, for their beginnings are there, so have they likewise been inscribed on the whole body, since all things of the thought and the will extend from their beginnings and there terminate as in their ultimates; and this is why the things that are inscribed on the memory from the will and consequent thought are inscribed not only on the brain, but also upon the whole man, and there, come into existence in order in accordance with the order of the parts of the body. It was thus made clear that man as a whole is such as he is in his will and its thought, even to the extent that an evil man is his own evil, and a good man his own good. ¹ From these things it can also be confirmed what is meant by the book of man's life spoken of in the Word, namely, that all things that he has done and all things that he has thought are inscribed on the whole man, and when they are called forth from the memory they appear as if read in a book, and when the spirit is viewed in the light of heaven, they appear as in an image. To all this I would add something remarkable in regard to the continuance of the memory after death, by which I was assured that not only things in general but also the minutest particulars that have entered the memory remain and are never obliterated. I saw books there containing writings as in the world, and was told that they were from the memory of those who wrote, and that there was not a single word lacking in them that was in a book written by the same person in the world; and thus all the minutest particulars might be drawn from one's memory, even those that he had forgotten in the world. The reason also was disclosed, namely, that man has an external and an internal memory, an external memory belonging to his natural man, and an internal memory belonging to his spiritual man; and that every least thing that a man has thought, willed, spoken, done or even heard and seen is inscribed on his internal or spiritual memory; ² and that the things there are never erased, since they are also inscribed on the spirit itself and on the members of its body, as has been said above; and that the spirit is thus formed in accordance with the thoughts and acts of its will. I know that these things seem to be a paradox, and are therefore believed with difficulty, but yet they are true. Let no one believe, then, that there is anything that a man has ever thought in himself or done in secret that can be concealed after death; but let him believe that all things and each single thing are then laid open as clear as day.

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