We know, in a general sense, what “false” means. It’s the wrong answer on a “true or false” test; it’s saying 2+2=5; it’s saying that the sky is green and the clouds are orange.

That simplicity, however, comes from applying the idea of “truth” to simple, concrete facts. It gets much trickier when we try to apply the idea to the things we love and feel.

Consider, for instance, the idea that “you’ve got to look out for yourself, because no one else is going to.” Is that true? It feels true in a way, and seems to apply to a lot of real-world situations. To some degree, no matter how high-minded we might be, we have to take care of ourselves if we’re going to be any good to anyone else. But if we take that idea and make it central to our lives, will it help us be loving people? Or will it encourage selfishness, which is pretty strong in most of us anyway? Clearly the answer is the latter.

Swedenborg would label that a “falsity,” because it is ultimately a description of how to be selfish. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” would, by contrast, be labeled a “truth” because it is a description of how to be caring and kind. Basically, statements describing or springing from love of the Lord and love of the neighbor are “truth” and those springing from love of self or love of worldly things are “falsity.”

You might wonder why that is. The fact that “look out for yourself” is selfish doesn’t make it necessarily untrue; it’s a selfish world! But in Swedenborg’s theology, the universe and reality itself are direct products of the Lord’s infinite love, and are thus ultimately expressions of love. The only reason selfishness exists is that the Lord created us with freedom, which includes the ability we have to reject His love and turn it toward ourselves instead. The Lord’s every intention and purpose is to get us turn away from ourselves and toward Him; if we do that, reality can fulfill its loving purpose.

True reality, then, is completely loving, and expressions that reflect and support that loving nature are “true” - they are aligned with reality in its purest, greatest and intended form. Statements that reject and deny that loving nature are “false” because they are contrary to reality’s true form.

But there’s an argument: Couldn’t someone use the idea that “you’ve got to look out for yourself, because no one else is going to” to become strong and self-reliant, in a better position to help others, and use it to be a better person? Yes, they could; ideas that are essentially false can at times be used for good purposes. In a broad application, religious systems can have false ideas about the Lord, but still lead people to good lives and ultimately to heaven. On the flip side, ideas that are essentially true can be used for evil purposes (“love thy neighbor” could prompt giving aid to someone engaged in evil, for instance). “Truth” only becomes truly real when it is married to the desire for good; “falsity” only becomes truly real when it is married to the desire for evil.

(Referencat: Apocalypse Explained 734; Conjugial Love 428; Divine Providence 318; The Apocalypse Explained 526 [1-2]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 171)

171. Falsity. There are many kinds of falsity-as many as there are kinds of evil, in fact-and evils and falsities retain the nature of their sources, which are many: 1188, 1212, 4729, 4822, 7574. Falsity that comes from evil, or evil-based falsity, is one thing; evil that comes from falsity, or falsity-based evil, which leads in turn to further falsity, is another: 1679, 2243. From any false idea that is taken as a first principle further false ideas flow in an unbroken series: 1510, 1511, 4717, 4721. There are falsities that are the result of cravings arising from our love for ourselves and for the world, and there are falsities that are the result of misleading sensory impressions: 1295, 4729. There are falsities that arise from what our religion has taught us and there are falsities that arise from our ignorance: 4729, 8318, 9258. There is falsity that contains some good and there is falsity that contains no good: 2863, 9304, 10109, 10302. There are also things that have been falsified: 7318, 7319, 10648.

The nature of falsity that comes from evil: 6359, 9304, 10302. The nature of evil that comes from falsity: 2408, 4818, 7272, 8265, 8279. The hells are surrounded by falsities that come from evil, which look like storm clouds and unclean waters: 8137, 8146, 8210. Waters like these symbolize falsities: 739, 790, 7307. The things that are said by the people who are in hell are falsities that come from evil: 1695, 7351, 7352, 7357, 7392, 7699. Left to their own devices, people intent on evil cannot think anything but falsity: 7437.

Some false religious beliefs harmonize with what is good and some do not: 9258. False religious beliefs that do not clash with what is good do not lead to evil except in people who are intent on leading an evil life: 8318. False religious beliefs are not held against people who are intent on doing good, but they are held against people who are intent on doing evil: 8051, 8149. Every falsity is something we can convince ourselves of, and when we have done so it seems to us to be the truth: 5033, 6865, 8521, 8780. We should be careful not to convince ourselves of falsity in matters of religion because in this arena we are particularly susceptible to false convictions: 845, 8780. How damaging false convictions are: 794, 806, 5096, 7686. False convictions continually generate arguments to support their own falsity: 1510, 1511, 2477. People who are convinced of falsities are inwardly imprisoned: 5096. In the other life, when those who have powerful false convictions encounter other people they shut down the rationality of those others and virtually suffocate them: 3895, 5128.

Truths that are not genuine and even falsities can be associated with genuine truths, but only falsities within which there is goodness, not falsities within which there is evil: 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298. If falsities have goodness within them, they are accepted by the Lord as if they were truths: 4736, 8149. Any act of goodness whose quality has been shaped by falsity is accepted by the Lord if it was done in ignorance and innocence, and if the aim behind it was good: 7887.

Evil falsifies truth because it bends it toward something evil and applies it to that evil: 8094, 8149. A truth that has been applied to some evil and used to support it is called a falsification: 8062. Falsified truth is opposed to what is true and what is good: 8062. More on falsifications of truth: 7318, 7319, 10648.