New Christian Bible Study

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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

 

Conjugial Love #262

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262. After that I examined the first universal love of hell, which was a love of governing stemming from a love of self, and then the universal love of heaven corresponding to it, which was a love of governing stemming from a love of accomplishing useful ends. Indeed, I was not allowed to examine one love without the other, because the intellect does not comprehend one without the other, since they are opposites. In order to understand the two, therefore, they must be set in contrast, one against the other. For a beautiful and attractive face shines out by the contrast to it of a homely and ugly one.

When I considered the love of governing stemming from a love of self, I was given to see that this love was supremely hellish, and so is found among those who are in the deepest hell; and that the love of governing from a love of accomplishing useful ends was supremely heavenly, and so is found among those who are in the highest heaven.

[2] A love of governing from a love of self is supremely hellish because to govern from a love of self is to govern from self, and a person's self from birth is the essence of evil, which is diametrically opposed to the Lord. The further people progress into this evil, therefore, the more they reject God and the sanctities of the church, worshiping themselves and nature. Let those who are caught up in this evil please examine it in themselves, and they will see.

This love is also such that the more it is given free rein (which it is as long as some obstacle does not stand in the way), the more it rushes from rung to rung until it reaches the highest it can; nor does it stop there, but if no higher level is possible, it grieves and laments. [3] In politicians this love mounts to the point that they wish to be kings and emperors, and if possible, to rule over all the world and be called kings of kings and emperors of emperors. The same love in clergymen, on the other hand, mounts to the point that they wish to be gods, and as far as possible, to rule over all of heaven and be called gods of gods. (It will be seen in what follows here that neither of these kinds of people acknowledge any god at heart.)

In contrast, however, people who wish to govern from a love of accomplishing useful ends - these do not wish to govern from self but from the Lord, since a love of useful ends comes from the Lord and is the Lord Himself [in them]. People like this look upon positions of authority only as means to performing useful services. They rank the useful services as far more important than the positions, whereas the first people described rank the positions as far more important than the useful services.

  
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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #82

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82. After this a man came rushing from the northern zone in a rage, and looking at me with a threatening expression and speaking in a heated tone, he said, "You are the one who is trying to lead the world astray by establishing a New Church, which you take to be meant by the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God, and by teaching that people who embrace the doctrines of this church will be blessed by the Lord with truly conjugial love, whose delights and happiness you exalt to the sky! Is that not something you just made up? Are you not just saying it as a snare and inducement to get people to go along with your new ideas?

"Tell me in short, however, what these New Church doctrines are, and I will see whether they hang together or not."

So I replied, "The doctrines of the church that is meant by the New Jerusalem are as follows:

"1. There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

"2. Saving faith is to believe in Him.

"3. Evils must be abstained from because they are of the devil and from the devil.

"4. Good deeds must be done because they are of God and from God.

"5. These good deeds must be done by a person as though he were doing them from himself, but he must believe that they are from the Lord in him and by means of him."

[2] When he heard this, the man's rage subsided for several minutes. But after some consideration, he again looked at me with a fierce expression, saying, "These five precepts - are they doctrines of the faith and charity of the New Church?"

And I answered, "Yes."

Then he asked me gruffly, "How are you able to demonstrate the first one, that there is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ?"

"I demonstrate it," I said, "in this way. Is God not one and indivisible? Is there not a Trinity? If God is one and indivisible, is He not one person? If He is one person, is the Trinity not in that person?

"That He is the Lord Jesus Christ I demonstrate by the following points: Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father (Luke 1:34-35), so that in regard to His soul He was God. And therefore, as He Himself says, the Father and He are one (John 10:30). He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:10-11). He who sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father (John 14:7,9). No one sees and knows the Father but He who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). All things belonging to the Father are His (John 3:35, 16:15). He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6), thus by Him, because the Father is in Him. And, according to Paul, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Colossians 2:9). And furthermore, He has authority over all flesh (John 17:2), and He has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

"From all this it follows that He is God of heaven and earth."

[3] The man then asked how I demonstrate the second precept, that saving faith is to believe in Him.

"I demonstrate it," I said, "by these words of the Lord:

This is the will of the Father..., that everyone who...believes in (the Son) may have everlasting life. (John 6:39-40)

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16,15)

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)"

[4] After that he said, "Demonstrate as well the third precept, and the ones that follow."

Then I replied, "What need is there to establish that evils must be abstained from because they are of the devil and from the devil, that good deeds must be done because they are of God and from God, and that these good deeds must be done by a person as though he were doing them from himself, but that he must believe they are from the Lord in him and by means of him? The Holy Scripture from beginning to end attests throughout that these three precepts are true. What else does it teach in sum but to abstain from evils and do good deeds, and to believe in the Lord God?

"And besides, there is not any religion without these three precepts. Religion has to do with a way of life, does it not? And what is that life but to abstain from evils and do good deeds. How can a person do these things and believe in them unless he does so as though he were doing them from himself?

"If you dismiss these precepts from the church, therefore, you dismiss the Holy Scripture from the church, and you also dismiss religion. And if you dismiss these, the church is not a church."

On hearing these things, the man withdrew and considered them. But still he went away in annoyance.

  
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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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