From Swedenborg's Works

 

Other Planets #1

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The Planets in the Universe

The Earthlike Bodies Called Planets in Our Solar System and in Deep Space, Their Inhabitants, and the Spirits and Angels There, Drawn from Things Heard and Seen

1. By the Lord’s 1 divine mercy the deeper levels within me, which belong to my spirit, have been opened, enabling me to talk with spirits and angels 2 -not only those near our world, but also those close to other planets. Because I have had a longing to know whether there are other worlds, what they are like, and what their inhabitants are like, the Lord has granted me opportunities to talk and interact with spirits and angels from other planets. With some of them I spent all day, with others a full week, and with still others months on end. I learned from them about the planets they came from and are close to now, about the life, customs, and worship of the inhabitants of those planets, and various other noteworthy details about them. Since it has been granted to me to know such things in this way, I am in a position to offer descriptions based on things I myself have heard and seen. 3

[2] It is important to know that all spirits and angels are human 4 and that they remain close to their planet of origin. 5 They know what is happening on that planet; and any people whose deeper levels have been opened to the point where they can talk and interact with spirits and angels can learn such things from those spirits and angels. After all, in our essence we too are spirits; 6 and in our deeper levels we are already among other spirits. 7 So anyone whose deeper levels have been opened by the Lord can talk with spirits and angels the way people talk with each other. 8 For twelve years now, this has been granted to me daily. 9

Footnotes:

1. On Swedenborg’s use of the term “the Lord” to refer to Jesus Christ as God, see note 10 in New Jerusalem 1. [Editors]

2. On spirits and angels in Swedenborg’s works, see note 2 in New Jerusalem 25. [Editors]

3. The Latin words here translated “based on things I myself have heard and seen” are ex auditis et visis, literally, “from things heard and seen.” It repeats a phrase that appears in the full Latin title of Other Planets. For more on the significance of this phrase, see note 2 in Last Judgment 17. [Editors]

4. [Swedenborg note] There is no such thing as spirits and angels who are not human: 1880.

5. [Swedenborg note] The spirits from each planet remain close to that planet, because they once lived there themselves, they have a nature similar to that of the current inhabitants, and the inhabitants need their help: 9968.

6. [Swedenborg note] The soul that lives after death is our spirit, which is the essential person within us; in the other life it appears in a perfect human form: 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 4735, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10594.

7. [Swedenborg note] Even while we are in this world, in our deeper levels, meaning our spirit or soul, we are surrounded by spirits and angels whose character is like our own: 2379, 3644, 4067, 4073, 4077.

8. [Swedenborg note] It is possible for us to talk with spirits and angels; the early people on our planet did this frequently: 67, 68, 69, 784, 1634, 1636, 7802. These days, however, it is dangerous to talk with them unless we have true faith and are being led by the Lord: 784, 9438, 10751.

9. On the commencement of Swedenborg’s spiritual experiences, see note 2 in Last Judgment 15, and compare Other Planets 124. It may be noted that while this passage in Other Planets reports the length of Swedenborg’s spiritual experiences as twelve years, Heaven and Hell 1 reports thirteen years, though both books were published in 1758. The simplest explanation for this discrepancy is that Other Planets was written before Heaven and Hell. On the order in which the works published in 1758 were actually written, see the editors’ preface, pages 29-33. [Editors]

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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1607

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1607. That 'for all the land which you see I will give to you' means the heavenly kingdom which was to be the Lord's is clear from the meaning of 'land' - the land of Canaan in this context since the words used are 'the land which you see' - as the heavenly kingdom. Indeed the land of Canaan represented the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, which is heaven, and also the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church. This meaning of 'land' has been discussed frequently already. That the kingdom in heaven and on earth was given to the Lord is clear from various places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

A Boy is born, a Son is given to us; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6.

In Daniel,

I saw in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of the heavens One like the Son of Man was coming, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages will serve Him. His dominion is an eternal dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom one that will not perish. Daniel 7:13-14.

The Lord Himself also says the same: in Matthew,

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father. Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22.

Elsewhere in Matthew,

[All] power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matthew 28:18.

In John,

You have given to the Son power over all flesh in order that all You have given Him, to them He may give eternal life. John 17:2-3.

And 'sitting on the right hand' has the same meaning, as in Luke,

From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Luke 22:69.

[2] As regards all power in heaven and on earth being given to the Son of Man, it should be recognized that the Lord already had power over all things in heaven and on earth before He came into the world, for He was God from eternity and He was Jehovah, as He Himself plainly declares in John,

Now, Father, glorify Me in Your Own Self with the glory I had with You before the world was. John 17:5.

And in the same gospel,

Truly, Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. 1 John 8:58.

In fact He was Jehovah and God to the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood, and was seen by them. He was also Jehovah and God to the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood; and He was the One whom all the religious observances of the Jewish Church represented, and the One they worshipped. The reason the Lord says that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, as though it had not been His till then, is that 'the Son of Man' is used to mean His Human Essence which became Jehovah as well after it had been united to His Divine Essence. Power was given to Him at that point, which would not have been possible until He was glorified, that is, until His Human Essence as well, through union with the Divine Essence, had life in Itself and likewise became Divine and Jehovah, as He Himself declares in John,

As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:26.

[3] It is His Human Essence or External Man that is named 'the Son of Man' in the passage quoted from Daniel, and 'a Boy born, a Son given to us' in the passage quoted from Isaiah. The fact that the heavenly kingdom would be given to Him, and all power in heaven and on earth, was shown and promised to Him then, and is the meaning of the statement 'all the land which you see I will give to you, and to your seed after you for ever'. This was before His Human Essence had been united to His Divine Essence, a union which took place when He had overcome the devil and hell, that is to say, when by His own strength and powers He had cast out all evil, which alone causes the severance.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means I was, but the Greek means I am, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #25

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25. Everything good and true comes from the Lord. 1 The Lord is goodness itself and truth itself: 2011, 4151, 10336, 10619. In both his divine and his human natures, the Lord is the divine goodness that results from divine love, and this goodness is the source of divine truth: 3704, 3712, 4180, 4577. Divine truth radiates from the Lord's divine goodness much the way light radiates from the sun: 3704, 3712, 4180, 4577. The divine truth that comes from the Lord takes the form of light in the heavens and is the source of all of heaven's light: 3195, 3222, 5400, 8694, 9399, 9548, 9684. Heaven's light, which is divine truth acting as one with divine goodness, enlightens both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits: 2 2776, 3138. Heaven is bathed in light and warmth because it is devoted to what is true and good, since divine truth there is light and divine goodness there is warmth: 3643, 9399, 9400; and [see also] Heaven and Hell 126-140. The divine truth that comes from the Lord's divine goodness gives the angelic heaven its form and design: 3038, 9408, 9613, 10716, 10717. In heaven, the divine goodness that is one with the divine truth is referred to as divine truth: 10196.

[2] Divine truth coming from the Lord is the only thing that is real: 6880, 7004, 8200. Everything was made and created by means of divine truth: 2803, 2894, 5272, 7678. Divine truth has all power: 8200.

[3] On our own we cannot do one bit of good or think one bit of truth: 874, 875, 876. On its own, our rational ability cannot grasp divine truth: 2196, 2203, 2209. Any truths that do not come from the Lord come from our own selves and are not true even though they seem to be true: 8868.

[4] Everything that is good and true comes from the Lord, and none of it from us: 1614, 2016, 2904, 4151, 9981. Things that are good and true are good and true to the extent that they have the Lord in them: 2904, 3061, 8480. On divine truth that comes directly from the Lord and on divine truth that comes indirectly, through angels, and on how they flow in for us: 7055, 7056, 7058. The Lord flows into what is good in us, and through what is good into what is true: 10153. He flows through what is good into truths of all kinds, but especially into genuine truths: 2531, 2554. The Lord does not flow, though, into truths that are cut off from goodness, and such truths do not bring us into a parallel relationship with the Lord the way goodness does: 1831, 1832, 3514, 3564.

[5] Doing what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true is loving the Lord and loving our neighbor: 10336. When we are devoted to the deeper aspects of the Word, the church, and worship, we love to do what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true; but if our involvement is only on a superficial level, with no depth, then we love to do what is good and true only for our own sakes or for worldly reasons: 10683. What it is to do what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true: 10683 (which includes examples by way of illustration).

Footnotes:

1. This proposition, like those in New Jerusalem 26 27, was not announced in the list of propositions to be treated in §20. [Editors]

2. In Swedenborg's theological works "angels" are people who have been born in the material world, died, gone through a transitional process in the spiritual world as described in Heaven and Hell 491-520, and found their final home in heaven. Generally speaking, "spirits" are people who have died recently and are still in the "world of spirits," which is a realm located between heaven and hell where all who die initially arrive when they enter the spiritual world. The spirits in the world of spirits may be good or evil, but they have not yet found their final homes in heaven or hell. In this passage, the term "spirits" may include "evil spirits," who have found their final place in hell. For more on the nature of spirits and the world of spirits, see Secrets of Heaven 320-323, 1880-1881, 5852; Heaven and Hell 421-444, 453-469; Divine Love and Wisdom 140. On changes in this nomenclature over the course of the theological works, see note 1 in Other Planets 80. [LSW]

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.