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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

 

True Christian Religion #390

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390. The sixth experience.

In the northern region of the spiritual world I heard what sounded like a rushing of waters. So I went towards it, and when I came close the noise stopped, and I heard a hum as if from a large gathering. Then I saw a building full of holes surrounded by a wall, and this was the source of the hum I heard. I went up and there was a door-keeper there; I asked him who were the people there. He said that they were the wisest of the wise, debating supernatural questions. He said this out of his own simple faith.

'May I go in?' I asked.

'Yes,' he said, 'so long as you do not say anything. I have permission to admit the gentiles to stand at the door with me.'

So I went in, and found a circle with a platform in the middle, and a group of so-called wise men discussing the mysteries of their faith. At this time the subject or proposition for discussion was whether the good which a person does in the state of justification by faith, or in its progress after the action, is religious good or not. They declared unanimously that by religious good they meant good which contributes to salvation.

[2] The debate was fierce; but the view prevailed of those who said that the good deeds a person does in a state of faith or during its progress are merely morally good, conducing to worldly prosperity, but making no contribution to his salvation. Faith alone could contribute to that. Their proof of this went like this: 'How can any good dependent upon a person's will be linked to a free gift? Is not salvation a free gift? How can any good coming from a man be linked with Christ's merit? Is not this the sole means of salvation? And how can what a man does be linked to what the Holy Spirit does? Does not the Holy Spirit do everything without any help from man? Are not these things the only effective means of salvation in the action of justification by faith, and do not the three of them remain the only means of salvation in the state of faith and its progress? So any extra good performed by man cannot by any means be called religious good, that is, as said before, good that contributes to salvation. But if anyone does this in order to be saved, since a person's will is involved in it, and this must inevitably look upon it as meritorious, it should rather be called religious evil.'

[3] Two gentiles were standing in the vestibule next to the door-keeper and heard this speech. One said to the other: 'These people have no religion. Anyone can see that doing good to the neighbour for God's sake, that is, with God and from God, is what is called religion. "Their faith,' said the other one, 'has driven them mad.' Then they asked the door-keeper who they were. 'Christian wise men,' said the doorkeeper. 'Nonsense,' they said, 'you are telling lies. They are playactors, to judge by the way they talk.'

So I went away. My coming to that building and the fact that they were then discussing that subject, and what I have described happening, were all the result of the Lord's Divine guidance.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #36

  
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36. VI. THE SIXTH STATE OF THE MEN OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH WAS THE ELEVATION TO GOD, AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT, OF THE FAITHFUL, OF WHOM A NEW HEAVEN WAS FORMED, AND THE REMOVAL FROM GOD OF THE UNFAITHFUL, OF WHOM WAS FORMED A NEW HELL. In the preceding propositions (from n. 10 to 13, and from n. 14 to 17), it was explained that, after consummation, a Last Judgment was executed upon all who were of each of the four Churches above named, and after this a new heaven and a new hell formed from them, and thus that there have been four judgments in this earth on its inhabitants, and four heavens and hells formed from them; and it has been granted me to know, that both those heavens and those hells are so entirely distinct from each other, that no person can by any possibility pass out of his own into that of another. All these heavens have been described in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE; and, as the spiritual origin of love truly conjugial 1 is from no other source than the marriage of the Lord and the Church, thus from the Lord's love towards the Church and that of the Church to the Lord (as was shown in that little work, from n. 116 to 131), and as the most ancient people were in both these loves so long as they retained in themselves the image of God, therefore, I may transcribe from that little work the following particulars respecting that heaven, to which I was at the time granted admission; which are as follow:

Footnotes:

1. Here, and elsewhere throughout this work, conjugialis is translated "conjugial" in preference to "marriage," on account of the new spiritual concept introduced by Swedenborg. In the first translation of De Amore Conjugiali, Rev. J. Clowes introduced this translation of conjugialis, but in this he is not followed by some translators of Swedenborg.

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

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