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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

 

Survey of Teachings of the New Church #116

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116. Concluding Appendix

THE faith of the new heaven and the new church in universal form is this: The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to gain control over the hells and to glorify his own human nature. If he had not done this, not one mortal could have been saved; those who believe in him are saved.

[2] I say “in universal form” because this concept is universal to the faith and something universal to the faith is going to be present in each and every aspect of it. It is universal to the faith to believe that God is one in essence and in person, to believe that in God there is a trinity, and to believe that the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ is God. It is universal to the faith to believe that if the Lord had not come into the world not one mortal could have been saved. It is universal to the faith to believe that the Lord came into the world to separate hell from the human race, and that he accomplished this by repeatedly doing battle with hell and conquering it. In this way he gained control over it, put it back into the divine design, and made it obey him. It is universal to the faith to believe that he came into the world to glorify the human nature he took on in the world, that is, to unite it to its divine source. Having gained control over hell and having glorified his human nature, he keeps hell in its place, under obedience to him forever. Since neither of these achievements could have happened except by allowing his human nature to be tested, including even the ultimate test, the suffering on the cross, therefore he underwent that experience. These are universal points of faith regarding the Lord.

[3] For our part, it is universal to the Christian faith that we believe in the Lord, for our believing in him gives us a partnership with him, and through this partnership comes salvation. To believe in him is to have confidence that he saves; and because only those who live good lives can have such confidence, this too is meant by believing in him.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #926

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926. To this I will append the following account:

When I was engaged in explaining chapter 20 and thinking about the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, someone appeared to me and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

I said, "About the false prophet."

Then he said, "I will take you down to the place where those people reside who are meant by the false prophet. They are," he said, "the same people as those meant in chapter 13 by the beast from the earth, which had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon."

I followed him, and behold, I saw a crowd of people, and in their midst some priests who had taught that nothing else saves a person but faith, and that works are good, but not for salvation. Yet works, they said, must still be taught from the Word in order to keep the laity, especially the simple, more tightly in bonds of obedience toward their magistrates, and to compel them, as though by religion, thus from a deeper motive, to exercise a moral charity.

[2] One of the priests then, seeing me, said, "Would you like to see our chapel? We have an image representative of our faith there."

I went over and looked, and behold, it was magnificent. And at its center was the image of a woman, dressed in a scarlet garment, holding in her right hand a gold coin, and in her left a string of pearls. Both the chapel and the image, however, were produced by illusions. For spirits in hell can use illusions to represent magnificent things by closing the inner constituents of the mind and opening only its outer ones. But when I noticed that the spirits were such sorcerers, I prayed to the Lord, and suddenly the interiors of my mind were opened; and instead of a magnificent chapel I saw a building filled with cracks from the ceiling to the floor, with nothing in it holding together. And instead of the woman I saw in the building a statue hanging, with a head like that of a dragon, a body like that of a leopard, and feet like those of a bear, being thus like the description of the beast from the sea in the book of Revelation, chapter 13. Moreover, the floor was replaced by a swamp teeming with frogs. And I was told that beneath the swamp was a large hewn stone, under which lay the Word, well hidden.

[3] Seeing these changes, I said to the sorcerer, "Is this your chapel?" And he said it was.

But suddenly then his inner sight was opened too, and he saw the same changes I saw. And seeing them, he cried with a great cry, "What is this? And why did it happen?"

So I said that it was due to light from heaven, which exposes the true character of every form. "And in this case," I told them, "it is the character of your faith that is divorced from any spiritual charity."

Immediately then an eastern wind came and took everything there away; and it also dried up the swamp, and so laid bare the stone under which lay the Word. After that a spring-like warmth wafted over me from heaven, and behold, I saw in that same place a tent, simple in its outward form.

Then some angels who were with me said, "Behold, the tent of Abraham, as it was when the three angels came to him and announced the future birth of Isaac. It looks simple to the eye, but it becomes more and more magnificent in proportion to the influx of light from heaven."

It was given them then to open the heaven inhabited by spiritual angels, who are characterized by wisdom, and owing to the light flowing in from there the tent looked like a temple, like the one in Jerusalem. And when I looked inside, I saw a foundation stone beset with precious stones, under which the Word had been placed. From the precious stones flashed light like that of lightning on the walls, which had on them figures of cherubim, and it bathed them in beautifully variegated colors.

[4] While I was admiring these things, the angels said, "You will see something still more marvelous." And it was given them to open the third heaven, inhabited by celestial angels, who are characterized by love, and then, owing to the light flowing in from there, the temple completely vanished, and in its stead I saw the Lord alone, standing on the foundation stone, which was the Word, in an appearance like that in which John saw Him in chapter 1 of the book of Revelation. But because a reverence then filled the interiors of the angels' minds, which produced in them an urge to fall prostrate upon their faces, suddenly the Lord closed the course of the light from the third heaven and opened the course of the light from the second heaven, and therefore the earlier appearance of a temple returned, and also that of the tent, but in the temple.

These experiences served to illustrate what is meant by the words in this chapter,

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them (verse 3, no. 882) 1

And by the words,

I saw no temple in (the New Jerusalem), for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (verse 22, no. 918).

Footnotes:

1. In the original Latin, the word for tent and the word for tabernacle are the same.

  
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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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