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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #72

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72. The second experience.

Once I heard an unusual murmuring at a distance, and in the spirit I followed the track of the sound until I came near. When I reached its source, I found a group of spirits arguing about imputation and predestination. They were Dutch and British, with a few from other countries among them, and at the end of each argument these shouted: 'Wonderful, wonderful!'

The subject under discussion was: 'Why does God not impute the merit and righteousness of His Son to every single person He has created and subsequently redeemed? Is He not omnipotent? Can He not, if He wishes, make Lucifer, the Dragon and all the goats into angels? Is He not omnipotent? Why does He allow the unrighteousness and impiety of the devil to triumph over the righteousness of His Son and the piety of those who worship God? What is easier for God than to judge all worthy of faith and so of salvation? What does it take but one little word? And if not, is He not acting contrary to His own words, that He desires salvation for all and death for none? Tell us then whence it is that those who perish are damned, and what is the reason for it.'

Then a certain believer in predestination, a supralapsarian 1 from Holland, said: 'Surely this is at the pleasure of the Almighty. Shall the clay blame the potter, because he made a chamber-pot of it?' Another said: 'The salvation of every man is in His hand, like the scales in the hands of someone weighing.'

[2] At the sides of the group there stood a number of people of simple faith and upright heart, some with reddened eyes, some as if drugged, some as if drunk, and some as if choked, muttering to one another: 'What have we to do with this nonsense? They have been driven crazy by their faith, which is that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever He wishes, when He wishes, and sends the Holy Spirit to effect the rewards of that righteousness; and so that a person should not claim for himself a grain of merit in attending to his own salvation, he must be as inert as a stone in the matter of justification, and like a block of wood in spiritual matters.'

Then one of these people thrust himself into the group and said in a loud voice: 'You madmen, what you are arguing about is goat's wool. 2 You obviously do not know that almighty God is order itself, and that there are myriads of laws of order, as many in fact as there are truths in the Word, and God cannot act contrary to them, because if He did so, He would be acting against Himself, and so not only contrary to righteousness but contrary to His own omnipotence.'

[3] On the right he saw at a distance what looked like a sheep and a lamb, and a dove in flight, and on the left what looked like a goat, a wolf and a vulture. 'Do you believe,' he said, 'that God by His omnipotence could turn that goat into a sheep, or that wolf into a lamb, or that vulture into a dove, or the reverse? Far from it; that is contrary to the laws of His order, of which not so much as a tittle can fall to the ground, as His words tell us. How then can He impart the righteousness of His Son's redemption to anyone who resists it, contrary to the laws of His righteousness? How can Righteousness itself do unrighteousness, and predestine anyone to hell and cast him into the fire, beside which the devil stands torch in hand making it blaze? You madmen, devoid of spirit, your faith has led you astray. Is it not in your hands like a snare for catching doves?'

On hearing this a magician made as it were a snare out of that faith and hung it in a tree, saying? 'Watch me catch that dove.' Very soon the hawk flew up and put its neck in the snare and hung there, while the dove on seeing the hawk flew past. The by-standers exclaimed in wonder, 'This trick is a reward of righteousness.'

Footnotes:

1. Supralapsarian: a person who believes the Fall of Adam was predestined.

2. Proverbial for what does not exist.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #261

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261. To this I will append three narrative accounts. Here is the first:

In the upper northern zone in the spiritual world, over to the east, there are places of instruction, some for boys, some for adolescents, some for men, and some also for older men. All who have died as little children and are being raised in heaven are sent to these places. So, too, are all those newly arrived from the world who wish to learn about heaven and hell.

This district is over to the east in order that they may all be instructed by means of influx from the Lord. For the Lord is the east, since He is there in the sun, which is pure love emanating from Him. The warmth from that sun consequently in its essence is love, and the light from it in its essence is wisdom. These two are infused by the Lord into the people there from that sun, and they are infused in accordance with their reception of them, which in turn depends on their love of becoming wise.

When their periods of instruction are over, those who have become intelligent are sent out from there and are called disciples of the Lord. They are sent first to the west, and if they do not remain there, to the south, and some through the south to the east. And so they are introduced into the societies where their dwellings are to be.

[2] Once, when I was thinking about heaven and hell, I began to wish to have a universal concept of the state of each, knowing that a person who is acquainted with the universals of a thing can afterwards comprehend the particulars, since the particulars are contained in the universals, like the parts in a whole.

With this wish I looked in the direction of that district in the northern zone over to the east, where the places of instruction were; and going there by a way then opened to me, I went into one of the colleges in which the students were young men. There I approached the senior teachers who were doing the instructing, and I asked them whether they knew any universal characteristics relating to heaven and hell.

[3] They replied that they knew a little something; "but," they said, "if we look eastward to the Lord, we will be enlightened and then we will know." They proceeded to do this, and then said:

"The universal characteristics of [both heaven and] hell are three, but the universal characteristics of hell are diametrically opposite to the universal characteristics of heaven. The universal characteristics of hell are the following three loves: a love of governing stemming from a love of self; a love of possessing the goods of others stemming from a love of the world; and licentious love.

"The universal characteristics of heaven opposite to these are the following three loves: a love of governing stemming from a love of being useful; a love of possessing the goods of the world stemming from a love of performing useful services by means of them; and truly conjugial love."

Their having said this, after wishing them peace, I departed and returned home.

When I got home, I was told from heaven, "Examine these three universal characteristics, above and below, and afterwards we will see them on your hand." They said, "on your hand," because everything a person examines mentally appears to angels as though written on his hands.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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