The Lord's Faith While He Was in the World

Have you ever read about the Lord's faith while He was in the world? I hadn't until I read Arcana Coelestia 1812:1-2 which describes the Lord's faith and explains why the Lord could have confidence that He would conquer in all the temptations He went through; it wasn't just because He knew that He is omnipotent. The passage ends with a beautiful description of the Lord's incredible love for us.

[W]hile He lived in the world the Lord was in continual combats of temptations, and in continual victories, from a constant inmost confidence and faith that because He was fighting for the salvation of the whole human race from pure love, He could not but conquer.... From the love from which anyone fights it is known what his faith is. He who fights from any other love than love toward the neighbor and toward the Lord's kingdom, does not fight from faith, that is, does not “believe in Jehovah,” but in that which he loves, for the love itself for which he fights is his faith. For example: he who fights from the love of becoming the greatest in heaven, does not believe in Jehovah, but rather in himself; for to desire to become the greatest is to desire to command others; thus he fights for command; and so in all other cases. ...

But in all His combats of temptations the Lord never fought from the love of self, or for Himself, but for all in the universe, consequently, not that He might become the greatest in heaven, for this is contrary to the Divine Love, and scarcely even that He might be the least; but only that all others might become something, and be saved.

Swedenborg Explains Why He Didn't Publish One of the Books He Said He Would

At different points in his life Swedenborg made lists of books that he was going to write. However, he didn't end up writing all the books that he said he was going to. People have come up with ways of explaining this. I recently ran across an instance where Swedenborg himself explains why he didn't write a certain book.

In the preface to Doctrine of the Lord (published in 1763) Swedenborg lists the theological books he has published so far and then says, “Now, by command of the Lord, who has been revealed to me, the following are to be published...” and in the list that follows he includes “Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Infinity, and Eternity” and “Angelic Wisdom concerning Life.” Neither of these books was published. In a letter to Beyer in 1767 Swedenborg explained why he didn't write the book about omnipotence.

Concerning the promised transaction on the Infinite, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Answer: These subjects have been interspersed in Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence 46-54, 157; and in Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom 4, 1-7, 19, 21, 44, 69, 72, 76, 106, 156, 318; and in the Apocalypse Revealed 691; and there will be still more concerning them in the Arcana of Angelic Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love; for to write separately concerning the Divine attributes would be to raise the thoughts too high without the assistance of anything to support them. For this reason the subjects have been dealt with in series together with other things that fall within the understanding.

Interesting Statement About Love of Self

On the board outside Rev. Stephen Cole's office I saw this interesting short statement about love of self from Divine Providence 277.

Does anyone have a feeling that it is wrong to love oneself more than others? Who, then, knows that it is evil? and yet it is the head of all evils.

There's an Internal Meaning to the Easter Story

I never understood until this year that all the things that people do in the Easter story have an internal meaning as well as all the things that people say. I knew, for example, that there is an internal meaning to the things the Lord said to His disciples at the Last Supper, and I knew lots about what the Lord was doing internally at various points in the Easter story—undergoing grievous temptations, glorifying His Human etc.—but I always read the details of the story (like the Lord eating supper with His disciples, and Peter cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest, and Pilate washing his hands) as just details of a literal story.

In college chapel today Rev. Ray Silverman read Arcana Coelestia 2405:7 which talks about how the Easter story can happen in each person's life.

As... the “morning” signifies the Lord, His advent, and thus the approach of His kingdom, it is evident what it signifies besides, namely, the rise of a new church (for this is the Lord's kingdom on earth), and this both... when any church on the globe is being raised up anew; [and] when a man is being regenerated, and being made new.... Hence the Lord's resurrection on the third day in the morning involves all these things (even in the particular and the least particular) in regard to His rising again in the minds of the regenerate every day, and even every moment.

I would love to read more about the internal meaning of the Easter story so if you know of a good passage that talks about some detail of the story please leave a comment on this post.

A New Church Take On Ghosts

Three Bryn Athyn College students recently made a short documentary about ghost stories called “Confessions of the Unknown” for their English class. They included in it interviews with Rev. Scott Frazier and Rev. Andy Dibb to provide a New Church perspective on ghosts. (You can buy the documentary at the new cafe in the Swedenborg Library.)

In the February issue of B.A.C.O.N. Bits, Bryn Athyn College's student newspaper, Rev. Don Rose provides a few more thoughts and passages on the topic; he writes,

A passage in Divine Providence mentions someone hearing “a few words.” The passage says that those who are permitted to say these words “never say anything that takes away the freedom of the reason” (Divine Providence 135). Another passage speaks of exceptional cases when people receive a kind of response in their thought, but these are “rarely by clear speech” (Divine Providence 321:3). A passage in Heaven and Hell speaks of rare instances of speech from spirits. “Some who lead a solitary life sometimes hear spirits talking with them” (Heaven and Hell 249). ...

There are spirits who are able to convince us that we have seen something. “For example, if the object be in a dark place, these spirits keep the mind of the beholder fixedly and continually in the thought of some one thing, be it an animal, a monster, a forest, or any other things; and so long as the mind is held in this thought, the fantasy is increased, and it grows to such a degree that the person is persuaded, and sees just as if the things themselves were there, whereas they are nothing but illusions” (Arcana Coelestia 1967).

Can We Understand Spiritual Truths?

How well can we understand spiritual truths while we're on earth? When we try to understand one of the more complicated descriptions in the Heavenly Doctrines of how things work it becomes clear that there is a lot more going on then we are able to grasp and it can seem like spiritual truths are beyond us. However, in De Verbo 3:4 it says that Swedenborg was told that

there are not any Divine mysteries that cannot be perceived and expressed naturally also, even though more generally and less perfectly....

Doctrine of Faith 3 expresses a similar idea and assures us that we can understand spiritual truths and that, though they may not be clear, we can come to be able to tell whether a given idea is true or not. It also explains how it is possible for us to understand spiritual truths.

[It] is commonly said no one can comprehend spiritual, that is, theological matters because they are supernatural. Spiritual truths, however, are as capable of being comprehended as natural truths; and although the comprehension of them may not be clear, still when they are heard they fall so far within the perception of the hearer that he can discern whether they are truths or not; and this is especially the case with those who are affected by truths....

The reason that spiritual things can be comprehended is, because man as to his understanding is capable of being elevated into the light of heaven, in which light appear none but spiritual things which are truths of faith: for the light of heaven is spiritual light.

The Purposes of Truth

We talk a lot about truth in the New Church. It's good to have a reminder, though, of what the point of truth is. Apocalypse Revealed 161:2 provides an interesting list of things that are done by means of truth. (It also lists Arcana Coelestia references where you can read more about each of them.)

[1] by truths comes faith....
[2] by truths comes love towards the neighbor, or charity....
[3] by truths comes love to the Lord....
[4] by truths come intelligence and wisdom....
[5] by truths regeneration is effected....
[6] by truths there is power against evils and falsities, and against hell....
[7] by truths there is purification from evils and falsities....
[8] by truths the church exists....
[9] by truths heaven exists....
[10] by truths comes the innocence of wisdom....
[11] by truths there is conscience....
[12] by truths there is order....
[13] by truths is the beauty of angels, and also of men as to the interiors which are of their spirit....
[14] by truths man is man....
But all this by truths from good, and not by truths without good, and good is from the Lord....

New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 24 has a similar list and also some other general statements about truth. It can be useful, when thinking about a specific truth, to consider how it might serve some of the purposes mentioned in these passages.

Swedenborg Sees One of His Books in the Spiritual World

A number of times in the Heavenly Doctrines Swedenborg describes seeing books written by him in the spiritual world. (If you're interested in finding out if he ever mentions seeing a specific book I recommend looking up that book in Pott's Concordance.) I just ran across a story where he mentions seeing Arcana Coelestia.

[A]s I withdrew I saw under a green olive tree around which a vine had entwined itself, a cedar table on which there was a book. I looked and lo, it was a book written by me, entitled Arcana Coelestia and I said that it was fully shown in that book that man is not life but an organ receptive of life; also that life cannot be created and when so created be in man, any more than light in the eye. (True Christian Religion 461:8)

Interestingly, in another place he tells a similar story, but in that story he sees a different book on the cedar table.

[W]hen I departed, I saw a cedar table, upon which was a book, under a green olive-tree, the trunk of which was entwined with a vine. I looked, and behold, it was a book written by me, called The Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, and also concerning The Divine Providence; and I said that it was fully shown in that book, that man is an organ recipient of life, and not life. (Apocalypse Revealed 875:15)

People Are Not Always to Blame for the Evil They Choose to Do

Rev. Peter Buss gave a great sermon about how people are not always to blame for the evil they do - even evil they have chosen to do. One of the main passages he referred to was Arcana Coelestia 4171. Here's an excerpt; read the whole thing.

Evils with man have many origins. The first origin is from inheritance by continual derivations from grandparents and great-grandparents into the father, and from the father, in whom the evils are thus accumulated, to one's self. The second origin is from what is actual, that is, what a man acquires to himself by a life of evil. This evil he in part receives by inheritance, as from an ocean of evils, and carries into act; and in part adds thereto many things of himself. From this comes the own which man acquires for himself. But this actual evil, which man makes his own, has also various origins - in general two: one, that he receives evil from others through no fault of his own; and the other, that he receives it of his own accord, thus through his own fault. That which a man receives from others without any fault of his own, is what is signified in the Word by “what is torn”....