124. Since many in the present-day church 1 do not believe in life after death and scarcely believe that heaven exists or that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, the deeper levels of my spirit have been opened so that even while I am in my body I can at the same time be in the company of angels in heaven and not only talk with them but also see amazing things there and describe them. This is so that no one in the future will say, “Who has come from heaven to tell us that it exists and describe what is there?” 2
All the same, I am well aware that people who at heart have already denied the reality of heaven and hell and life after death will be adamantly opposed to these descriptions and will deny them, because it is easier to make a crow white 3 than it is to make people believe something once they have rejected faith from their heart. This is because they constantly approach such matters from a negative perspective and not from an affirmative one. 4
What I have said and am about to say about angels and spirits is primarily for those few who believe. Nevertheless, in order that others too may be persuaded to accept at least a few of these ideas, I have been allowed to include the sort of details that appeal to and intrigue the curious. The next stories will be about extrasolar planets.
Notas de rodapé:
1. By “the present-day church,” Swedenborg here refers to the Christian church as it existed in his day. On Swedenborg’s use of the term “church,” see note 3 in New Jerusalem 4. [Editors]
2. Compare Proverbs 30:4, “Who has ascended to heaven and come down?” (New Revised Standard Version) and its echoes in John 3:13 and Romans 10:6. See also similar statements in Secrets of Heaven 5224; Heaven and Hell 1, 312:3; Last Judgment 15[3]; Marriage Love 39; True Christianity 160:4. [SS, LSW]
3. The ease with which absurd propositions can be proven by scholarly rhetoric is a common theme of Swedenborg’s, and his favorite example is the argument “proving” that crows (or ravens) are white. See Divine Providence 318:4; Marriage Love 233:4; True Christianity 334:5; Revelation Explained (= Swedenborg 1994-1997a) §824:2. The use of white crows or ravens as counterexamples in philosophy has a long history going back at least to Aristotle’s Prior Analytics 26a38 (= Aristotle 1984, 42). [SS, RS]
4. For more discussion of the negative and affirmative perspectives mentioned here, and the results of each, see Secrets of Heaven 2568, 2588, 3913, 4760; Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) §§4533-4536, 4577[a]. [LSW]
