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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 #796

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796. Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin in the spiritual world.

I have held many conversations with these three leaders, who were the reformers of the Christian church, and thus I learned what has been the condition in which they lived from the beginning down to the present day. As for Luther, as soon as he arrived in the spiritual world, he was at once a keen propagator and defender of his dogmas, and as the numbers of his supporters coming from the earth increased, so did his zeal for those dogmas. He was given a house there similar to the one he had lived in while in the bodily life at Eisleben. In the middle of this he set up a slightly raised platform, where he took his seat. The door was open to admit listeners, whom he arranged in rows, the strongest supporters nearest to him, and those less favourable behind him. Then he spoke continuously, from time to time allowing questions, in order to be able to begin again by picking up the thread of the discourse he had just finished.

[2] As a result of this general support he finally adopted a false conviction; this is so potent in the spiritual world that no one can resist it or speak against what it prescribes. But because this was a kind of incantation as used by the ancients, he was forbidden to go on talking seriously on the basis of that conviction, and after that he taught as before from memory and at the same time the use of his understanding. A conviction of this sort which is a kind of incantation wells up from self-love. This ends up by making a person so disposed that, when anyone contradicts him, he not only attacks the subject under debate, but the other person himself.

[3] He lived like this up to the Last judgment, which took place in the spiritual world in 1757. A year later he was moved from his first house to another, at the same time moving into a different state. On hearing that I, although in the natural world, spoke with those who were in the spiritual world, he was one of a number who came to see me. After some questions had been put and answered, he perceived that the present time is the end of the former church and the beginning of the new church foretold by Daniel's prophecy, and also by the Lord Himself in the Gospels. He also grasped that it is this new church which is meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation, and by the everlasting gospel which the angel flying in the midst of heaven announced to dwellers upon earth (Revelation 14:6). He became very indignant and abused me; but as he grasped that there was a new heaven, which was and is being made from those who acknowledge the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth, as His words in Matthew 28:18 state, and noticing that the size of his audience grew less day by day, he stopped being abusive, and then came closer to me and began to talk with me in a more intimate fashion. Once he had been convinced that he had drawn his principal dogma about justification by faith alone not from the Word, but from his own intelligence, he allowed himself to be instructed about the Lord, charity, true faith, free will and so on to redemption, all of this from no source but the Word. Finally when he had been convinced, he began to take a favourable view, and more and more to convince himself of the truths on which the new church is being founded.

[4] At this time he was with me daily, and then, whenever he recalled as being those truths, he began to laugh at his previous dogmas, as being something completely opposite to what the Word says. I heard him say: 'You should not be surprised that I seized upon faith alone as justifying, shut off charity from its spiritual essence and also took away from people all free will in spiritual matters, not to mention other things which hang like hooks from a chain on faith alone, once it is accepted. My aim was to make a split with the Roman Catholics, and there was no other way to achieve and accomplish this aim. I am not surprised therefore that I myself went astray, but I am surprised that one madman could drive so many others mad.' He glanced round here at some dogmatic writers who had been famous in his time, faithfully following his teaching, for failing to see the contradictions contained in Holy Scripture, evident though they were.

[5] The examining angels told me that this leader was in a better position to be converted than many others who had convinced themselves of justification by faith alone, because in childhood, before he started making the reformation, he had absorbed the dogma of the preeminence of charity. This was why both in his writings and his sermons he gave excellent teaching about charity. It is to be deduced from these facts that his belief in justification was implanted in his external natural man, not rooted in his internal spiritual man. The case is quite different with those who while young convince themselves that there is no spirituality in charity; and this also happens automatically, when justification by faith alone is well grounded upon arguments.

[6] I talked with the prince of Saxony with whom Luther had been in the world. He told me how he had often criticised him, in particular for separating charity from faith, and declaring faith and not charity as the means to salvation, when Holy Scripture not only links them as the two universal means to salvation, but Paul too puts charity above faith, saying that there are three things, faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity (1 Corinthians 13:13). Luther, however, replied every time that he could do no other because of the Roman Catholics. This prince is among the blessed.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #233

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233. The third account:

After this, one of the angels said, "Follow me to the place where they are crying out, 'Oh, how wise!'" And he added, "You will see human monstrosities. The faces and bodies you see will be like those of a human being, and yet they are not human."

So I said, "Are they animals, then?"

The angel replied, "No, they are not animals, but animal-like. For they are people who cannot see at all whether truth is true or not, and yet whatever they wish they can make to be true. Among us, people like that are called confirmers."

We then followed the clamor and came to the place. And lo, we found a group of men surrounded by a crowd of people, and in the crowd some people of noble lineage. The men were confirming whatever the latter said and agreeing with them with such manifest accord that when they heard it, they turned to each other and said, "Oh, how wise!"

[2] However, the angel said to me, "Let us not go over to them but instead call one of them out of the group."

So we called one of them to us, and going aside with him, we talked about various matters. And he confirmed each point so thoroughly that they all appeared entirely as true.

We then asked him whether he could also confirm the converse of these. He said that he could, just as well as he did the previous ones. At which point he said openly and from the heart, "What is truth? Is there any truth in the nature of things other than what a person makes true? Say to me anything you please and I will make it to be true."

So I said, "Make this true, that faith is everything in the church." And he did so, so cleverly and skillfully that some learned bystanders looked on in admiration and applauded. I asked him next to make it true that charity is everything in the church, which he did, and afterwards that charity is nothing in the church. And he dressed up both propositions and arrayed them in such verisimilitudes that the bystanders looked at each other and said, "Isn't he wise!"

But I said, "Do you not know that to live rightly is charity, and to believe rightly is faith? If anyone lives rightly, does he not also believe rightly? Thus showing that faith is connected with charity, and charity with faith? Do you not see that this is true?"

He replied, "I will make it true and then I will see." And having done it he said, "Now I see." But shortly he made the converse of it to be true, and then he said, "I see as well that this is true."

We chuckled at this and said, "But are these not contradictory conclusions? How can you see two contrary conclusions as true?"

Nettled by our response, he replied, "You are wrong. Both conclusions are true, since truth is only what a person makes true."

[3] Standing nearby was someone who in the world had been an ambassador of the highest rank. He marveled at this and said, "I recognize that something of this sort goes on in the world, but still you are insane. Make it to be true, if you can, that light is darkness, and darkness light."

To which he replied, "I will do it easily. What are light and darkness but conditions of the eye? Does light not turn to darkness when the eye comes in out of bright sunshine? Or when it gazes intently at the sun? Who does not know that the state of the eye then changes and that light consequently appears as darkness? And conversely, that when the condition of the eye recovers, the darkness appears as light?

"Does an owl not see the darkness of night as the light of day, and the light of day as the darkness of night? Does it not see the sun itself as a dark and shadowy orb? If a person had eyes like an owl's, what would he call light and what would he call darkness?

"What then is light but a condition of the eye? And if it is a condition of the eye, is not light darkness and darkness light? Consequently the one proposition is true and the other is true."

[4] After that the ambassador asked him to make it to be true that a raven is white and not black.

To which he replied, "I will do this easily, too. Take a needle or razor," he said, "and open up the feathers or quills of a raven. Are they not white inside? Then remove the feathers and quills and look at the raven's skin. Is it not white? What is the blackness surrounding it but an opaqueness to light, which is hardly a basis on which to judge the raven's color? If you do not know that blackness is only an absence of light, ask experts in the science of optics and they will tell you. Or grind a piece of black stone or black glass into a fine powder, and you will see that the powder is white."

"But," said the ambassador, "does a raven look black to the eye?"

"Perhaps," replied this confirmer of ours, "but as a human being, are you willing to base what you think on an appearance? You may indeed speak in accordance with the appearance and say that a raven is black, but you cannot think it. As for example, you may speak in accordance with the appearance and say that the sun rises, travels and sets, but as a human being you cannot think it, because the sun stands still and it is the earth that moves. It is the same with the raven. An appearance is only an appearance. Say what you will, a raven is totally and utterly white. It even turns white when it grows old, as I have observed."

[5] We then asked him to tell us honestly whether he was joking or whether he really believed that there is no truth but what a person makes true. And he answered, "I swear that I believe it."

After that the ambassador asked him whether he could make it true that he was insane. To which he said, "I could, but I do not want to. Who is not insane?"

This total confirmer was afterwards sent to some angels for them to examine and determine what sort of person he was. And having examined him, they said he possessed not even a grain of understanding, because everything that exists above the level of reason in him was closed up, and only that which is below the level of reason was open.

"Above the level of reason," they said, "is the light of heaven, and below the level of reason is the light of nature. And the light of nature is such that it can confirm whatever it pleases. However, if the light of heaven does not flow into the light of nature, a person does not see whether any truth is true, and so neither whether any falsity is false. An ability to see both what is true and what is false results from the presence of light from heaven in the light of nature, and the light of heaven comes from the God of heaven, who is the Lord.

"This total confirmer is therefore neither human nor animal, but animal-like."

[6] I asked the angel with me about the fate of people like that and whether it was possible for them to be among the living, since a person has life from the light of heaven, and from it comes his intellect. And the angel said that when people of this sort are by themselves, they are incapable of thought and so have nothing to say, but stand as mute as machines, as though in a deep sleep; but as soon as something catches their ears, they awaken. He added also that people become like that who are inmostly evil. "The light of heaven cannot flow into them from above," he said, "but only some spiritual element through the world, from which they have an ability to confirm."

[7] After he said this, I heard the voice of one of the angels who had examined the man, calling to me and saying, "From what you have heard draw an overall conclusion."

So I drew the following conclusion: An ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not the mark of an intelligent person; rather, the mark of an intelligent person is to be able to see that truth is true and falsity false, and to confirm that.

I afterwards looked over at the gathering where the confirmers stood and where the crowd surrounding them was beginning to cry out, "Oh, how wise!" And suddenly a dusky cloud enveloped them, with screech owls and bats flitting about in the cloud.

It was then explained to me, "The owls and bats flitting about in the dusky cloud are correspondent forms and thus manifestations of their thoughts. For in this world, confirmations of falsities to the point that they appear as truths are represented under the forms of birds of the night, whose eyes are lit up with an illusory light from within by which they see objects in darkness as though in light. This is the kind of illusory spiritual light had by those who confirm falsities to the point that they appear as truths, and who afterwards say and believe they are truths. They all possess a kind of after-sight and not any prior sight."

  
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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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