Swedenborg Sampler

Paso 1: Swedenborg Sampler Introduction

Paso 2: Part 1: True Christian Religion

Paso 3: What is God's love like?

Paso 4: Why doesn't God save everyone?

Paso 5: Why do we need the Lord?

Paso 6: The power He can give us

Paso 7: Fatal errors in traditional Christian doctrine

Paso 8: Why is a notion of God such a remote part of Western culture?

Paso 9: What do people see when they look at the Word of God?

Paso 10: The Word's deeper meaning

Paso 11: The Word's deeper meaning (continued)

Paso 12: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal")

Paso 13: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Paso 14: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Paso 15: How do we acquire faith?

Paso 16: How much do we have to know?

Paso 17: What is charity?

Paso 18: What is charity? (continued)

Paso 19: First remove the beam from your own eye

Paso 20: True expressions of charity are God working through us

Paso 21: Doesn't everyone believe that people have freedom of choice in spiritual things?

Paso 22: Our freedom exists from our spirit

Paso 23: What seems like freedom isn't necessarily so

Paso 24: Repentance is the first thing of the church with a person

Paso 25: Repentance is not just a matter of saying the right words

Paso 26: A person is not born evil, but is born with inclinations to love things that are evil

Paso 27: Seeing good and evil within our own lives

Paso 28: What is real repentance?

Paso 29: It's easier to see sin in another than in oneself

Paso 30: Two advancing states of mind for those on the path to heaven

Paso 31: The Lord brings about spiritual rebirth with our cooperation

Paso 32: What is temptation?

Paso 33: Why do some people think that God doesn't care what choices we make in our daily life?

Paso 34: There is a current drawing all toward heaven

Paso 35: Part 2: Arcana Coelestia

Paso 36: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word

Paso 37: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word (continued)

Paso 38: The state of mind of a person before his regeneration

Paso 39: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . .

Paso 40: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . . (continued)

Paso 41: Seeing the evil in others versus seeing the good in them

Paso 42: How the love of self blinds a person to reality

Paso 43: Why Christianity has been split into conflicting groups

Paso 44: What motivates a person's efforts in difficult times?

Paso 45: Without charity in our hearts we cannot live together as brethren

Paso 46: The Lord never compels anyone because it doesn't work; each person needs to compel himself

Paso 47: The quality of a person who knows the truth but doesn't care about what is good

Paso 48: True wisdom of life is gentle and yet also conquers all

Paso 49: The essential importance of self‑compulsion

Paso 50: The Lord's willingness to adapt to where a person is

Paso 51: Prayer regarded in itself is talking with God

Paso 52: An affirmative or negative approach to God's Word

Paso 53: Feeling terrible can lead to wisdom

Paso 54: The Lord cares for the very tiniest details of our lives

Paso 55: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil

Paso 56: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil (continued)

Paso 57: The Lord does not allow the evil which accompanies doubt and temptation unless some good can come of it

Paso 58: Peace has in it confidence in the Lord

Paso 59: Care for the morrow and trusting in the Lord

Paso 60: The Lord looks after the details as well as the big picture

Paso 61: Stages of human development

Paso 62: Part 3: Divine Love and Wisdom

Paso 63: Love is the life of a person

Paso 64: Feeling the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving

Paso 65: If a person thinks from ideas of space and time, he can never understand God or anything spiritual

Paso 66: Without a knowledge of discrete degrees [spiritual levels] nothing of cause can be known

Paso 67: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person

Paso 68: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person (continued)

Paso 69: What distinguishes humans from animals?

Paso 70: In the human mind the will and understanding work together, but the will leads

Paso 71: The quality life of a person who is natural but with whom the spiritual degree of his mind is opened

Paso 72: The quality of life of a person who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not opened, yet not closed

Paso 73: The quality of life of a person life who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not entirely closed.

Paso 74: A bad person as well as a good one who has both freedom and rationality

Paso 75: In a state of evil, goodness seems like slavery and evil like freedom

Paso 76: True love has use for an end and intends it

Paso 77: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for sustaining the body

Paso 78: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for perfecting the rational

Paso 79: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord

Paso 80: Reasons why it is excusable for some people to see nature as a source of life

Paso 81: Love of self and the world were by creation heavenly loves

Paso 82: Part 4: Divine Providence

Paso 83: A person can see the Lord's hand in all of creation if he wishes

Paso 84: The Divine Providence of the Lord has as its goal a heaven from the human race

Paso 85: The more someone recognizes what he gets from the Lord, the more free he is

Paso 86: It is a law of the Divine Providence that people should act from freedom according to reason [that is, according their best understanding of what is true].

Paso 87: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should, apparently by their own power, remove evil [thoughts and deeds] as sins in the external person.

Paso 88: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and therefore to believe and love, the things of religion, but should persuade and at times compel himself to do so.

Paso 89: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this to all appearance as of himself.

Paso 90: The Word taught by means of people, but still directly by the Lord

Paso 91: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but still that he should know and acknowledge it.

Paso 92: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events?

Paso 93: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events? (continued)

Paso 94: How would we tend to behave if we were able to clearly see the direction the Lord is leading us?

Paso 95: God is the master architect of our eternal lives

Paso 96: If therefore, you wish to be led by the Divine Providence. . . .

Paso 97: What is fortune or luck?

Paso 98: Images of the Divine Providence operating in our lives

Paso 99: The Lord never wills that an evil [event] should happen, but He does permit it to occur

Paso 100: Reasons why people doubt or deny that there is such a thing as the Divine Providence

Paso 101: Evil [loves] cannot be removed unless they appear

Paso 102: No one is born to fry

Paso 103: The operation of the Divine Providence from birth to the end of life

Paso 104: Part 5: Conjugial Love

Paso 105: Very few people know the true source of joy in heaven

Paso 106: What happened to people who arrived in the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from endless opportunities for wonderful conversations?

Paso 107: What happened to people who arrived at the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from mere admission to heaven?

Paso 108: In the life after death a male is still very much a male and a female very much a female

Paso 109: What about the Lord's statement from the New Testament that there is no marriage after death?

Paso 110: What is a male angel's reaction to the opposite sex?

Paso 111: What happens when married partners meet after death?

Paso 112: Why some marriages formed on earth do not continue to eternity?

Paso 113: All joys and all delights are gathered within a true love of marriage

Paso 114: A true love of marriage requires a person to approach the Lord directly

Paso 115: The arguments of a polygamist (in the life after death) on why his approach to marriage is best

Paso 116: Contrary to some people's ideas, the husband is not the head of the wife

Paso 117: Love of marriage is closely related to a person's outlook on religion

Paso 118: The states of mind that accompany a true love of marriage

Paso 119: Will my marriage get better or worse as time goes by?

Paso 120: What happens when a relationship is a power struggle?

Paso 121: A temporal or non-eternal focus is contradictory to a true love of marriage

Paso 122: The first meeting of a future husband and wife in heaven

Paso 123: Spiritual intimacy is the real basis for a true love of marriage

Paso 124: Part 6: Heaven and Hell

Paso 125: Why did Swedenborg have the experiences that he did, and why was this book written?

Paso 126: The Lord loves variety

Paso 127: Everything of this world springs from and has permanent existence from the spiritual world

Paso 128: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun

Paso 129: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun (continued)

Paso 130: The ups and downs in the life of an angel

Paso 131: Life in heaven does not follow a clock

Paso 132: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Paso 133: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Paso 134: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way

Paso 135: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way (continued)

Paso 136: What is the innocence of a wise person?

Paso 137: What is heavenly joy like?

Paso 138: What happens to children who die?

Paso 139: What happens to children who die? (continued)

Paso 140: Children in heaven need to learn how to resist the pressure to follow others

Paso 141: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven

Paso 142: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven (continued)

Paso 143: What happens after death to someone who intentionally chose a deprived life to earn a heavenly reward?

Paso 144: Being poor can lead one away from heaven just as much as being rich

Paso 145: How big is heaven?

Paso 146: How big is heaven? (continued)

Paso 147: Angels live at the peak of youthful life forever

Paso 148: We are spirits even now

Paso 149: We are spirits even now (continued)

Paso 150: The end of natural life is but a passing

Paso 151: Intention makes the person

Paso 152: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death?

Paso 153: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Paso 154: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Paso 155: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Paso 156: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Paso 157: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Paso 158: It is not so difficult to lead the life that leads to heaven

Paso 159: How is there a balance between the power of heaven and that of hell?

Paso 160: Determined evil can be controlled only by punishments

Paso 161: How does anyone end up in hell if the Lord sends no one there?

Paso 162: What is it like to arrive in a community in hell?

Paso 163: How does the equilibrium between heaven and hell affect our lives?