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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 #118

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118. Three Memorable Occurrences Taken from Revelation Unveiled

The first memorable occurrence. Once as I was explaining chapter 20 in the Book of Revelation and was meditating on the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, an angelic spirit appeared to me and asked what I was meditating on. I said, “The false prophet.”

The angelic spirit said, “I will take you to the place where the spirits meant by the false prophet are.” He added, “They are the same spirits portrayed in chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation as the beast from the earth who had two horns like a lamb, but who spoke like a dragon.”

I followed the angelic spirit. To my surprise I saw a crowd with church leaders in the center of it. The leaders were teaching that nothing saves us except faith in Christ’s merit and that works are good things to do, but not for our salvation. They were also proclaiming that works need to be taught from the Word so as to put lay people, especially simple ones, on a leash so that they obey their civic leaders and feel compelled from within by religion to practice moral goodwill.

[2] Then one of them saw me and said, “Do you want to see our shrine? It has a sculpture in it that portrays our faith.”

I went and saw it. It was magnificent! In the center of the shrine there was a statue of a woman dressed in scarlet clothes. She had a gold coin in her right hand and a chain of pearls in her left.

Both the statue and the shrine, however, were projected images. Hellish spirits have the ability to portray magnificent things using projected images. They do it by closing off the inner levels of our mind and opening only its outer levels.

When I realized that the statue and the shrine were conjured up through sorcery I prayed to the Lord. Suddenly the inner levels of my mind were opened. Then instead of a magnificent shrine, I saw a house that was full of cracks from the roof all the way to the foundation. Nothing in it was solidly connected. Instead of the woman, I saw a dummy hanging in the house, which had the head of a dragon, the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. It was exactly like the beast from the sea described in Revelation 13:2. Instead of the floor, there was a swamp that contained thousands of frogs. I was told that under the swamp there was a great hewn stone; and beneath it the Word lay deeply hidden.

[3] Seeing this I said to the sorcerer, “Is this your shrine?”

“It is,” the sorcerer said.

Just then, though, the sorcerer’s inner sight opened up as well. The sorcerer saw the same things I was seeing and loudly shouted, “What is this? Where did this come from?”

“It came from the light of heaven,” I said, “which has disclosed the true quality of each form here, including the quality of your faith, which has been separated from spiritual goodwill.”

Immediately the east wind came up and blew away the shrine with the sculpture. It dried up the swamp and exposed the stone that had the Word lying underneath it.

Then a warm, springlike breeze blew in from heaven. To my surprise I then saw a tent in that same place, a very simple one in its outer form.

Angels who were with me said, “Look, it is Abraham’s tent just as it was when the three angels came to him to announce that Isaac was going to be born [Genesis 18:1, 2, and following]. The tent looks simple to the eye, but as the light of heaven flows in, it becomes more and more magnificent.”

The angels were then granted the ability to open the heaven where spiritual angels live—the angels who have wisdom. In the light that flowed in from that heaven, the tent looked like the Temple in Jerusalem. When I looked inside, I saw that the foundation stone under which the Word had been hidden was now covered in precious stones. From the precious stones a kind of lightning was flashing onto walls that had reliefs of angel guardians on them, giving the angel guardians beautifully different colors.

[4] As I was feeling awestruck by these sights, the angels said, “You are about to see things that are even more miraculous.” They were then granted the ability to open the third heaven where heavenly angels live—the angels who have love. As a result of the light that flowed in from that heaven, the entire temple disappeared. In its place I saw the Lord alone, standing on the foundation stone, which was the Word. He looked much the way he had when seen by John in Revelation chapter 1.

Yet because holiness then filled the inner realms of the angels’ minds so that they felt an overwhelming urge to fall forward on their faces, suddenly the channel of light from the third heaven was closed by the Lord and the channel of light from the second heaven was reopened. As a result, the earlier appearance of a temple, and also a tent, returned. The tent was in the temple.

These experiences illustrated what Revelation 21 means when it says, “Behold, the tent of God is among people, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3); and when it says, “I saw no temple in the New Jerusalem, because the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22).

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #505

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505. The third experience. 1

I once heard a noise as of two mill-stones grinding together. I approached the sound, and it ceased. I saw a narrow doorway leading downwards and at an angle towards a building with a vaulted roof; it had a number of rooms each divided into small cells. In each of the cells sat two people collecting passages from the Word in support of justification by faith alone; one collected the passages and the other wrote them out, and they took turns to do this.

I went up to one cell which was near the entrance and asked: 'What are you collecting and writing out?'

'Passages,' they said, 'about the act of justification or faith in action, the faith which is the real one, and justifies, quickens and saves. It is the leading doctrine of the church in our part of Christendom.'

'Tell me,' I said to him then, 'some sign of that act, when that faith is introduced into a person's heart and soul.'

'The sign of that act,' he answered, 'is at the moment when a person smitten with grief at the thought of being damned, and being in a state of contrition, thinks about Christ taking away the damnation imposed by the law, confidently grasps this merit of His, and keeping this in his thoughts approaches God the Father and prays.'

[2] 'The act does so take place,' I said, 'and there is this moment. But how am I to understand,' I asked, 'what is said about this act, that nothing on man's part assents to it, any more than he would assent if he were a block of wood or a stone? Man, as it is said, with regard to that act can begin nothing, will or understand or think nothing, perform no act or contribute to any joint act, or fit or adjust himself. Tell me how this squares with your assertion that the act arises at the time when a person thinks about the enforcement of the law, about the taking away of his damnation by Christ, about the confidence with which he seizes Christ's merit, and with these thoughts in mind approaches God the Father and prays. Surely all of these are acts done by the person?'

'Yes,' he said, 'but they are not done by him actively, but passively.'

[3] 'How,' I answered, 'can anyone think, have confidence and pray passively? If you take away his activity and co-operation, do you not also take away his capacity to receive, and so everything is lost together with the act itself? What then does your act become but something purely imaginary, what is called a point of argument? I hope that you do not follow certain people in believing that such an act only takes place with those who are predestined, and know nothing of the faith being poured into them. They could just as well play at dice to determine whether faith was poured into them or not. Therefore, my friend, you should believe that man as regards faith and charity acts of himself under the Lord's guidance, and without this act on his part this act of faith of yours, which you called the leading doctrine of the church in Christendom, is no more than Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt, which rings as pure salt when struck with a scribe's quill or with his fingernail (Luke 17:32). I have said this because you are making yourselves with regard to this act like such statues.'

When I said this, he took hold of the lamp-stand to hurl it with all the force in his hand in my face. But the lamp suddenly went out and he threw it in his companion's face, while I went away amused.

Footnotes:

1. This passage is repeated with slight modifications from Apocalypse Revealed 484-486.

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

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