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An Overview of Theistic Psychology
Through the Sayings of
Leon James, Emmanuel Swedenborg and Jesus of Nazareth
Note: To view a slide show
presentation of the first 100 Sayings for each author, click here:
Leon James || Emmanuel Swedenborg
|| Jesus of Nazareth
Dr. Leon James,
Professor of Psychology
University of Hawaii
First posted:
2003| Last update: 2009
Table of Contents
Sayings of Emmanuel
Swedenborg
Putting my sayings in a tandem next
to those of Emanuel Swedenborg and Jesus of Nazareth may appear outwardly as a
vain thing on my part, or plain silly. Therefore a brief note of explanation is
in order.
Collocating the three collections of
Sayings in this way actually constitutes an intellectual path available to
people today who want to do research on the scientific knowledge of God through
the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture. I have described this
systematic extraction process in my 18-volume online work Theistic
Psychology at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic
(See also the updated List of Online Books by Leon James at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/booklist.htm )
The Sayings of Leon James is a work that outlines in modern scientific perspective
the reports and findings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) regarding the
spiritual world of the afterlife in eternity. At age 57, in the midst of an
active life as a science publisher, engineer, and legislator in Sweden, he
suddenly began to become conscious in his celestial mind as well as in his material
mind. This dual consciousness lasted for 27 years until his passing on at age
84.
This makes Swedenborg the first modern scientist who had
direct observational access to what happens to human beings when their physical
body dies.
The Swedenborg Reports on the spiritual world of the afterlife in
eternity amount to about 30 volumes of writings which have been translated and
researched by dozens of scholars over the past two centuries (see the Readings
Section in my Theistic
Psychology, or see my Web site on Swedenborg
which contains the Swedenborg
Encyclopedia of Theistic Psychology).
The Sayings of Emanuel Swedenborg is a work made up of selections I took from the theological
Writings of Swedenborg, which
describe and demonstrate how to extract the correspondential sense of the Old
and New Testament Sacred Scriptures.
The theological Writings of Swedenborg are available online and searchable from
various Web locations, as for instance:
www.theheavenlydoctrines.org
www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/index1a.html
www.swedenborgstudy.com/
www.theisticpsychology.org/writings.html
The Sayings of Jesus of Nazareth is a work made up of selections I
took from the New Testament Sacred Scripture. These selections are listed and
explicated in the Writings of Swedenborg, where it is explained that the words
of Divine Speech are recorded by a prophet or revelator in a natural language
and published as a written work that is the basis of a religion.
However, Swedenborg demonstrates
that the literal expressions and sentences of the Bible are actually written in
the Divine language of correspondences. These are the same as the cause-effect
laws by which God manages all the discrete layers of creation.
When we analyze the sentences of
Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament,
using the method of correspondences defined in the Writings of Swedenborg, we obtain a scientific description of God
and the methods He uses to create and manage the universe through the rational
laws of correspondences.
The Sayings of Leon James provides a modern translation of the method of
correspondences and its results in the form of theistic psychology.
The Sayings of Swedenborg provides a description and demonstration of the method of
correspondences.
The Sayings of Jesus of Nazareth provides an overview of the scientific knowledge of God,
which is included in the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures.
The reason I call this work Sayings is that the selections are held
short, in the style of traditional “sayings” or “quotable quotes” that are
pithy or concatenated, and contain layers of meaning that can be explored by
delightful reflections that can lead to spiritual enlightenment and the desire
for further study by going to the three sources for further research.
(
1)
Religion is our love affair with God.
(
2)
Heaven is the top of our mind and hell is the bottom.
(
3)
The goal of life is to become a married couple in heaven united to
eternity as one.
( 4) The true husband makes his wife’s will to be
as-if his own.
(
5)
The highest bravery there is for a man is to listen to his wife.
(
6)
True freedom is to be obedient to God’s Law, while slavery is to follow
one’s inclinations.
(
7)
Love for their pets introduces people into the joyful sphere of heaven.
(
8)
Every boy is born a husband to be, every girl, somebody’s wife.
(
9)
True Christianity is the Science of God.
(10)
Rational faith is the love of truth for the sake of good.
(11)
Everything in the human mind is either from heaven or hell – there is no
other possibility.
(12)
Feeling old is to take appearances for reality.
(13)
The greatest event of human history is the appearance of God on this
earth as a Divine Human Person.
(14)
The greatest of all joys is to love your spouse more than yourself.
(15)
The greatest honor you can give the Lord’s Name is to obey His
Commandments because He gave them to us.
(16)
Love is the invisible portion of truth. Truth is the visible portion of
love.
(17)
The Word of God contains scientific revelations about God, the human
mind, and the spiritual world of heaven and hell.
(18)
The Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg
constitute the Threefold Word. These three collections of Divine scientific
revelations constitute True Science,
the Science of God (i.e., the Science God gives to humanity).
(19)
Scientific dualism is theistic science when based on True Science.
Science that excludes God and the spiritual world is atheistic. With the
completion of the Threefold Word, a new era now begins for the human race.
(20)
Doubt is not like an avalanche that buries you in snow, but like a river
carrying you to a dangerous waterfall -- you've got to struggle to swim upstream
to get away.
(21)
Religion is a cultural vehicle for knowing God, and such as is the
culture, such is
the religion.
(22) A man can rise to heaven on the elevator of
his rational understanding but he cannot stay there without a woman who loves
him, no more than his lungs can breathe for long without a beating heart being
attached to it.
(23) Becoming adult is learning how to wait.
(24) Growing up is weaning oneself from
uncomfortable dependencies.
(25) To follow God is wise, rational, and prudent.
To follow self is foolish, illogical, and foolhardy.
(26) Live truth by loving it.
(27) Those who love God, love their country.
(28) To love what is not true leads to love for
what is not good, and that is hell.
(29) You are where your love is. In heaven, if
your love is for good; in hell, if your love is for what is bad.
(30) The perfection of heaven comes from the unity
of its diverse inhabitants, each a unique individual to eternity.
(31) The human mind is spirit. Since spirit is
outside time, the mind is immortal.
(32) Your mind is in the spiritual world – not in
time and space. Your brain is in the natural world of time and space. When your
brain dies, your mind then continues life in the spiritual world to eternity.
(33) Thoughts and feelings are in the spirit, not
in time and space. Your mind is made of your thoughts and feelings. Therefore,
the mind is not in time and space, but is immortal.
(34) Rational thoughts are truth’s vehicles that
carry our love for others. Falsified truths in our thinking are vehicles for
self-love.
(35) False ideas are the ensnarements
of evil.
(36) Freedom lies in obeying God’s truth; slavery,
in obeying self.
(37) Reaching for perfection requires ceaseless
progress.
(38) Denying God is a ticket to hell.
(39) Every planet is created a nursery for angels
in heaven.
(40) What is the mechanism for raising a man’s
spiritual consciousness to heavenly light? Surrendering
voluntarily to his wife.
(41) What makes the unity between husband and wife more perfect
than anything else in the universe? The fact that nothing in
him is like anything in her, and vice versa.
(42) Perfection comes from the unity of diverse
unique elements.
(43) The infinite is larger than you think. Think
some more. You are still way under the mark.
(44) Truth fashions the mind’s anatomy; falsified
truth, distorts it.
(45) God is True Science.
(46) Love is truth’s inner power.
(47) Truth is love’s outward shield.
(48) Truth is visible to awareness while its love
is hidden within it.
(49) If truth is the chair, then love is its wood.
If love is the flower, then truth is its stalk.
(50) If truth is water, love is its steam.
(51) If love is heat, truth is its light.
(52) The Letter of the Threefold Word is Divine
Truth. Its inner sense is Divine Love.
(53) To conjugial husbands, the Lord is to the
wife what the wife is to the husband.
(54) Faith is love’s sword; love is faith’s
purpose.
(55) Wisdom is rationality. Rationality is to
think from God’s revealed truth. Hence, spirituality is to think wisely and
rationally.
(56) The wife sees clearly what the husband is
blind to. This is why a man cannot find his way to heaven without following his
wife.
(57) The restorative well being of worship lies in
sensing God’s sweetness when tasting His Word.
(58) Tasting God’s Word is to love it in
innocence.
(59) Innocence is obedience to God’s Word because
it is God’s wish.
(60) Saying thanks to God while we are enjoying
our food is as important as saying thanks prior to eating.
(61) We are born already attached to evil. We are
born already in hell with our will. The amount that we contribute to our evil
ourselves is as nothing when you compare it to the evil we already have (= are
tied to). This is why we must have a "new will" not a reformed will.
(62)
God prods each of us through our conscience. By disregarding this prodding, we
become responsible for the evil we already have. The prodding is done through
conscience so that it feels like our own prodding (guilt, shame, regret,
empathy, charity, sympathy, tolerance, forgiveness etc. -- these are the
positive and negative emotions ("reinforcements") we receive through
conscience). We are responsible for how we react to or manage this socio-moral
prodding from within that God performs for each individual ceaselessly.
(63) What makes us most human? Thinking. When are we most human? When our thinking serves a rational love.
(64) Rationality is our highest spirituality.
(65) Our
highest rationality is the understanding of truth revealed in the Word.
(66) I am most loving to my cat Mama when I
want my joy to be in him.
(67) When I frown or say something negative,
I want my displeasure to be in you. When I smile or say something nice, I
want my joy to be in you. The first is devilish, while the second is
angelic.
(68) When you look at a person up close, you
see others.
(69) First we think of the mind as a
generator or originator of thoughts and feelings within our individual private
minds. But later we find out from revelation that the mind is a receiver of the
thoughts and feelings of others, just like a radio is a receiver of the sounds
broadcast by the radio station. The broadcasting for our thoughts and feelings
originates from those who are now in heaven and hell. No one can go off line
and therefore no one can ever be alone. The human race is tied into an online
spiritual network or "vertical" community that is independent of time
and space, is eternal, and is forever growing and evolving.
(70) Let a tall apartment building represent
rational spirituality. Then, God is the roof and the revealed Word is the
elevator. The penthouse is Genuine Doctrine in our understanding. Living and
enjoying the penthouse is thinking and willing according to Genuine Doctrine.
(71) If you hate something, there is
something about it you like. When you no
longer like that thing, you stop hating it and start avoiding it.
Avoidance is separation; hate is connection.
(72) If you love something, you are connected
to it forever. Even if you now hate it, you are still connected to it.
Nevertheless, God can selectively separate you from what you have become
connected to - so long as you are willing.
(73) Those in hell are unwilling to be
disconnected from their various lusts. This enormously stubborn
unwillingness is what keeps them in that sorry state forever. Friend, take heed
to avoid placing your life of enjoyment into what is incompatible with heavenly
life.
(74) God has made Himself available as the
Divine Human, whose Character we can receive and borrow to live as-if our own.
This Divine Human Character, lived as if our own, adapts itself differently
with each unique human being, filling each individual with the maximum
happiness that person can endure. All this - because God
loves each person with infinite love and wisdom to eternity.
(75) The purpose which keeps an individual
alive on this planet is to learn to love what is good. When that lesson can no
longer proceed further, death is precipitated and the
person
begins life in heaven or hell. Some learn the lesson immediately, and pass on
as infants to be raised in heaven. Others refuse to learn the lesson
after eight or nine decades, finally run out of time and let themselves
down into hell. When do you figure on learning that lesson?
(76) Stop. Repent.
And try to change. God will then give you victory
(77) To be a safe and happy driver, cultivate
an attitude of gratitude.
(78) I once thought that a number
sufficiently large would be able to digitally reproduce the human body and the
entire natural world. Today I realize that no number however large could
reproduce a tiny speck of the spiritual world and the mind.
(79) Atheism is a temper tantrum against
reality.
(80) Water dissolves everything. In
other words, everything yields to truth.
(81) We are judged by truth. Thereby we
receive good. Therefore love truth so
you may receive good. Heaven is in good.
(82) All the semantics of rational
spirituality lies in these two sets: Set 1: love, heart, desire,
interest, motive, purpose, intention, will, right brain, etc. Set 2:
truth, lungs, thought, imagination, knowledge, belief, problem-solving, plan,
guide, understanding, left brain, etc. Knowing the difference between
these two sets opens a window into the highest consciousness of reality.
(83) Every day I catch myself in a silent
rage. Against whom? I discovered that
there are only three possibilities: rage against others and the world,
rage against self, and rage against God (or "fate").
(84) Truth is the syntax of reasoning that
lights up our consciousness, making us immortal.
(85) The light of truth and the heat of love
make heaven and earth.
(86) Within all truth there is love.
(87) Christianity is God's love affair with
the human race. In its highest form it is also rational faith and
theistic science.
(88) The Writings of Swedenborg constitute Christianity demystified-rational faith of the Second
Coming.
(89) Who we will be is who we are since to
God the future is as present as the past or the present.
(90) Love is a resource--for happiness, fun,
and fulfillment.
(91) Nothing exists except relationship, and
its reverberating consequences. All relationship is a spiritual tie
or co-presence due to the expression of love for the other. Love
expresses itself in multiple ways-communicating with others, sharing what one
possesses, serving people's needs, supporting worthy causes, assuming
responsibility, preferring orderliness, loving truth, behaving honestly,
and leading a life of usefulness to society and the world. These are the
expressions of love that create relationship. All things in the universe are
for the sake of this.
(92) God is our highest relationship, our
deepest love. Our closest bond with God is within our loving
relationships with others, and not with God directly. All the love we express
comes from God and this love urges us to love Him by loving others. This is the
First of all Commandments. "You Must Love God" means that we must
love Him through others. By loving them we love Him, and not by loving Him
Apart from them, for then, we do not love Him and the love we then have for Him
is not from Him but from the devil.
(93) Our immortality depends on our
rationality.
(94) Swedenborg's record is an
exceptional case that becomes evident when his reports are analyzed. It is
totally without precedent in the history of humankind where a well known
scientist and noted community member, declares in his published Writings that
he was given by the Divine the special and unique ability to be conscious in
both worlds.
(95) There are two positions one can
take about the proposal of introducing God into science. According to one
position--the negative bias, scientists automatically exclude God from
scientific explanations. This may be called the negative bias in science since
there is no way of proving empirically that God does not exist. The other
approach may be called the positive bias in science since it accepts the
possibility of God's existence without being
able to prove it first. But while the negative bias continues unproven as a
permanent position, the positive bias allows us to examine the evidence. Once
the evidence is examined, and seen as valid, the positive bias is no longer a
bias but a proof. The negative bias remains a bias.
(96) According to the assumptions of
theistic psychology, scientific revelations have been given by God in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772) and
that these revelations make up the basic assumptions and premises for theistic
science. Without these scientific revelations it would be impossible to have
access to these details about God's management methods, since they cannot be
discovered in any other way.
Whatever other authors have written
in the past necessarily represent their guesses or visions, and these remain
limited. By definition it is impossible for any of them to see beyond the human
level. But scientific revelations are Divine and come from the level of the
Divine Omniscience. They make accessible to science a database of knowledge
about God and the afterlife which can never be discovered or invented by humans
living in the natural world. But this is true, not of the literal sense of
Sacred Scriptures, but of its correspondential
sense.
(97) According to rational
spirituality we can be "conjoined" with God in a reciprocal duality
where the parts always and forever remain distinct from each other, and there
is never a "melding" or other "oneness" possible.
Conjunction with God brings salvation and eternal life in heaven, which is the
highest state of life for human beings. But the delusion of
"oneness" with God brings falsities in one's life instead of truth,
and the eventual result is the corruption of the mind so that the self sinks
into the lowest state of human life called hell forever.
(98) The great news about
substantive dualism is that the geography of the spiritual world is identical
to the anatomy of the mind. With this astonishing discovery Swedenborg was able
to describe the anatomy of the mind by means of the objective observation of
the geographic features of the spiritual world.
(99) Another great news of substantive dualism is that our life of eternity in the
spiritual body can be and must be prepared for. Our lot or level of life in
eternity is completely determined by the content of the personality and
character we have developed while living on earth. Hence any individual can make
the conscious choices now that will lead to eternal happiness and super-natural
abilities.
(100) It appears that I am one of
the forerunners of the future in the history of science since I clearly see and
understand that the Writings of Swedenborg are scientific revelations from God
given to humankind as Sacred Scripture in its correspondential sense.
The Old Testament, the New
Testament, and the Writings
of Swedenborg together make a rational and scientific unit called the Threefold Sacred Scripture (or “Threefold
Word”).
By using the method of correspondences
revealed in the Writings, researchers in all the ensuing generations will be
able to extract from Sacred Scripture
an endless stream of scientific information that God has revealed regarding how
the universe is created and managed by discrete degrees of existence.
(101) Every individual's mind
functions in conjunction with numerous other individuals through a chain of
unconscious interconnections with other individuals, from those whose state of
consciousness is in the highest regions of the human mind called the “Third
Heaven," to those who are in the lowest state called the hells. I call
these unconscious interconnections the vertical community to distinguish
it from the horizontal community of our neighborhood or country.
(102) Swedenborg observed that our
thoughts and feelings are influenced by those who are in communication with our
spiritual body that houses the thoughts and feelings. The character of the
influence was determined by the character of the individuals or
"spirits" who were in communication with our
spiritual body. Swedenborg also realized that there is a purpose and mechanism
involved in these spiritual interactions. The purpose had to do with
regeneration or character reformation. Every individual is put into the
position of undergoing regeneration since this is necessary for ascending to
the celestial regions of life.
(103) Every
planet is created for carrying human life and numerous planets are now
inhabited and new ones are constantly being created--all in a grand Divine plan
to create immortal human beings that live in eternal bliss in the heavenly
regions of the mind.
(104) Character is our spiritual
body and is formed of spiritual substances that are immortal and permanently
part of our self. We are kept in spiritual freedom continuously. This is effected by being associated with spiritual societies on
both sides of a decision-making process. Every time we make a decision, a
substantive engram is formed in the spiritual body or
character. This is indelible, though it can be covered up and moved to the side
during the regeneration process.
(105) A
man's character is constructed on a reciprocal basis to a woman's character so
that the two may become one united person in the uppermost regions of the human
mind. For this unity to be effected to potential
perfection, it is necessary that not a single component of the man's character
be like any component of the woman's character. They must be perfect
reciprocals of each other, or soul mates. Perfection of human life is achieved
by maximum differentiation brought into the reciprocation of conjugial unity.
(106) Theistic psychology is not a
religion but a science. Theistic psychology contrasts with atheistic psychology which automatically excludes God as an
explanatory concept. This is known as the “negative bias” approach in science.
Theistic psychology automatically includes God as a concept in all explanations
about human behavior and dynamics. This is called the “positive bias” approach
in science.
While religion depends on creed and
faith, theistic psychology depends on rational and scientific explanations of
the laws and mechanisms by which God causes every event and behavior to occur. Theistic
psychology knowledge advances by “extractive research” – extracting facts and
doctrine from Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech using the method of
correspondences with enlightenment, revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg.
(107) The Divine scientific
revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg are not opposed to the religious
perspective. In fact, the scientific approach confirms the religious one, and
goes into scientific details in explicating the reality of God as the universal
Divine Human who uses rational scientific methods for creating and running the
universe for the sake of His love for the immortal human race.
(108) Irrational and selfish
thinking and feeling in the external conscious natural mind prevents
the interior spiritual mind from developing within the conscious natural mind.
On the other hand, rational and altruistic thinking and feeling in the external
conscious natural mind allows for the full development of the interior
spiritual-natural mind. When we "awaken" to our immortal life in the
spiritual body, it is the quality of this spiritual interior mind that
determines our fate forever.
(109) The geography of the spiritual
world = the anatomy of the human mind.
There is a perfect overlap between
them. This means that in the afterlife we live forever in our mind since the
mind of everyone is immortal. What’s amazing is that though we are each in our
own mental world, we all can see each other! This is because there is only one mental world. The
mental world of each human being overlaps with the mental world of all other
human beings. This is like space in the physical world. There is only one
space. The space between atoms and the space between galaxies constitute the
same space, though there is no overlap in the physical world as there is in the
mental world, where there is no physical space but only mental ether.
(110) Unless
an object has a spiritual substance within it, or tied to it
correspondentially, it cannot come into existence nor continue in existence or
subsist. The brain therefore has a spiritual substance within it and it is this
spiritual substance that produces sensations, thoughts, and feelings.
The physical brain therefore has a mental
brain “within” it, constructed out of mental substances. It is this mental
brain that operates sensations, thoughts, and feelings, which make up the mind.
The physical brain produces or operates no sensations or thoughts, but only
electro-chemical activity that correspond to the
sensations and thoughts in the mental brain.
The mental brain contains the memory
of our life, our experiences, and our identity. The physical brain contains an
electro-chemical representation or model of those mental experiences of living.
When the physical brain dies, none of the memories are affected since they are
located in the mental brain, which is within the mental body.
Going through the
dying/resuscitation procedure detaches the connection between the physical and
mental bodies. Upon awakening 33 hours later, we walk off and start our new
immortal life in eternity. Swedenborg has confirmed this by going through this
process himself many times, during which he stopped breathing and his physical
body was inert. He then awakened or resuscitated in his celestial mental body,
permitting him to explore that new world and write about in the diary of notes
he kept for many years.
(111) It is
important to distinguish the science of theistic psychology from other
endeavors that fall outside of rational science. An effective way of
distinguishing rational spirituality from mysticism and spiritism is to
determine whether the spiritual information being provided is based on direct
sensory input from the spiritual world. If yes, then it cannot be scientific.
This is because, theistic psychology is based
exclusively on the Writings of Swedenborg which is the only original source of
scientific information on the spiritual world.
(112) Spiritism is harmful because
it inhibits the development of rational spirituality in an individual.
Swedenborg observed that individuals who first awaken in the spiritual world
("novitiate spirits") are unable to continue believing anything they
do not understand rationally. Their science and religion are rejected unless
that which has been understood rationally. This is because the spiritual world
is a rational world, being the world of the mind.
(113) The
basic tenet of theistic psychology can be seen when you consider this
definitional and methodological formula:
mental = rational = spiritual = immortal and eternal
(114) The
“expanse” of the mental world may be called rational ether which is also
the expanse in our mind. It is like the grammar of the language you speak. The
grammar is made up of an integrated collection of rational rules called
"syntax." Linguists have given precise mathematical descriptions to
these psycho-linguistic units in language. We think in terms of rational
categories imposed by the structure of the mental organs in which thinking
takes place (see my
discussion of the work of Mark Johnson and George Lakoff on embodied
thinking).
(115) There is a spiritual or mental
mechanism by which we rise to our heaven or fall into our hell. It is a
predetermined and unchangeable universal law for all humans, just like
pregnancy and birth are. While we are still in this world we can alternate between
rational and irrational states, which means also that
we can alternate between good loves and bad. But this alternation is impossible
in the afterlife state where opposites destroy each other if brought together.
(116) Theistic psychology
investigates the overlap between the mental world and the spiritual world by
means of the laws of correspondences revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg.
These scientific revelations indicate that we are born dual citizens in the
natural and spiritual world, living in both worlds simultaneously.
(117) Selfishness is slavery.
Altruism is freedom.
(118) You
don’t get to notice what you don’t value.
(119) All
is well within the turbulent waters The churning stops when the yearning goes
Then the thought picks up a higher scent And the vitality of enthusiasm rushes
in.
(120) Blood coursing through tubes
supplies the energy for protein cells, as spiritual heat from God activates our
loves in the mind’s affective organ. Air containing oxygen is aspirated by the
lungs as inflowing spiritual truth from God, and is received into our rational
understanding. The body needs and thirsts for the molecules of uncontaminated
water as the mind needs and longs for the substance of spiritual truth. The
sensory organs in the nose filter the air, detecting its chemical properties as
the cognitive organ in the mind receives and detects the rational quality of
the inflowing spiritual light from God.
(121) The
more scientific and rational people become, the more they are attached to God.
The more scientific people become, without also becoming rational, the more
they avoid the idea of God. This is because all rationality is from God and
starts and ends with God.
(122) The Two Great Commandments of
the Judaeo-Christian Religion – Love God and Love
your neighbor – Means to Love God in yourself and in others. To love God in
ourselves is to acknowledge His loving and omnipotent co-participation in our
feelings, thoughts, and acts. To love God in our neighbor is to acknowledge
that how we treat the neighbor, is how we treat God in the neighbor.
(123) Joy is the consciousness of
relationship. Happiness is the constancy of joy. Love is the binding force in
relationship. Reality is created by love through wisdom (truth, rationality,
intelligence). God is the source of all love, hence of all happiness. Such as
our relationship to God is, such is our love, consequently such our joy and
happiness.
(124) The
rational man loves feminine intelligence more than masculine intelligence.
(125) The
body is the visible mind.
(126) The
body is the form of eternity.
(127) The
concept of "eternal" contains two components: one is "outside
time"; the other is "mental."
(128) Spiritual heat is nothing else
than Divine Love or Good, and spiritual light is nothing else than Divine Truth
or Wisdom.
(129) Love produces everything in
the mental world of eternity. In eternity everything is produced by our loves.
(130) Heaven is the capacity to be
moved by God to will only what is good and to think only what is truth. When we
are in the state of heaven, self-interest is totally absent, and hence the
state of heaven is called a state of innocence.
(131) Everyone
is born with the innate spiritual capacity to acquire a new personality that
puts others above self-interest. Anyone who steadfastly strives to practice
this attitude of life acquires a character that can be moved by God to will
only what is good and to think only what is truth.
(132) Conjunction with God through
Sacred Scripture is the process of creating our eternity. Heaven is a product
of this conjunction.
(133) Divine Love is the process
that operates this conjunction. Conjugial love is received from Divine Love. It
produces the highest heaven in the human mind. Through it, we are brought
nearest to the Divine Human. All other paths lead to greater distance from the
Divine Human.
(134) For
us humans, once alive, always alive.
(135) There are three things in a
man that a woman wants more than all other things—friendship, cooperation, and
wisdom.
(136) A
wife wants friendship from her husband because she needs to feel
stimulated and free. These are the feelings that come from being best friends.
This includes intimacy and sexuality as an eternal couple.
(137) A wife wants cooperation
from her husband because her life is miserable and hard when he resists her in
this or in that, following his own mind instead of hers.
(138) A
wife wants wisdom in her husband so that she could admire him and feel
safe and protected from false perspectives and dangerous involvements to which
she might otherwise fall prey to.
(136) Conjugial couples do this with
one another and for each other:
(a) They always have fun in each
other’s company. Thus, they are best friends.
(b) The husband never disagrees with
his wife because he is dedicated to support her feelings ahead of his own
feelings. Thus, he is spiritually enlightened and has wisdom.
(c) They feel complete freedom in
their intimacy because their sexuality is complete, being the ultimate
expression of their unity, here, and in heaven to eternity.
(137) Theistic Psychology is the Holy Spirit, the
Doctrine of Truth from the Writings Sacred Scripture viewed as Divine Speech.
(138) Theistic Psychology is the science of
immortality, the science of Divine Love, the science of spiritual wisdom, the
science of rational consciousness of God.
(139) Theistic Psychology brings everyone to their
fullest human potential. It promotes true human community and true theistic
science and its beneficial applications.
(140) God creates all things as finite. God, who is
infinite and uncreate, cannot be part of the created and the finite. This is
substantive dualism.
(141) God can adjoin the infinite to the finite, so
that infinite and uncreate things of God, like good and truth, or love and
wisdom, can appear to be as-if part of the created finite. This is as-if nonduality.
(142) The infinite Divine Good (or Love) and Divine Truth (or
Wisdom) appear more and more as-if our own, the more and more we understand and
perceive that the good and truth in us are not our own. This is enlightenment,
reformation, regeneration, and all spiritual development.
(143) The more we develop
spiritually, the more we are rational, wise, and good, and the less we attribute
these powers to ourselves. The result is the eternal angelic life in conjugial
bliss.
(144) Wife is life.
(145) The perception of
unity is a flow of love.
(146) Lucky is the husband at the receiving end of
the unbelievable lightness of her sweetness.
(147) Insight is foresight.
(148) Swedenborg's record is an exceptional case
that becomes evident when his reports are analyzed. It is totally without
precedent in the history of humankind, that a well known scientist and noted
community member, declares in his published Writings, that he was given by God
the special and unique ability to be conscious in both worlds, so that he may
investigate the spiritual world, and publish scientific reports that may
convince all rational thinkers, that a world of immortality awaits every
person, and for which we all need to prepare now, by reforming our inherited
evil character, and becoming a heavenly character that reaches its utmost human
potential in endless eternity of conjugial love, which Swedenborg visited
through his spiritual mind.
(149) You are now in the natural
phase of your eternity.
(150) When we die in the physical body, we are
freed as spirits in the mental world.
(151) The spiritual world
of the afterlife and eternity is nothing else than the mental world that is so
familiar to each of us.
(152) There is only one
mental world and we all live in it. It is called the spiritual world where God
and eternity await every person.
(153) We are born in the
mental world as immortal spirits, we are temporarily attached to a physical
body that we need in order to develop our natural mind. Our eternity is
dependent upon our acquiring this natural mind. We cannot skip this phase and
be born directly into heaven for we would then have no content in our mind, and
a mindless individual cannot be happy and human.
(154) When we no longer
need the physical body, it dies and drops away from our mental body or “spirit.”
We are then immediately resuscitated in the mental world (or “spiritual world”)
where we meet all the others in their afterlife. We then carry on our new
immortal life in this spiritual world where everyone else is. Swedenborg was
able to see and speak with various authors and personalities he knew from
history and literature going back to Aristotle.
(155) The quality of our
life in eternity is determined by the character we have developed through our
natural mind. This is what we bring with us from this world to the next.
(156) Scientific revelations in
Sacred Scripture is necessary. Without it, humanity cannot survive.
(157) Those who allow
their character to sink into hell, are unwilling to exit from it. Such is their
insane distaste and aversion for heavenly loves – God, innocence, marriage,
children, peace, compassion, integrity, modesty, self-denial
for the sake of others. These are the traits by which they could ascend to
heaven. But their aversion for these traits is so intense that they rather stay
in hell forever than acquire these heavenly loves as their own. “They” is each
of us, before we change our character.
(158) The great news of
substantive dualism or theistic science, is that we are able to prepare for our
life in eternity. Our eternal destiny is in our power through the choices we
make in daily life.
(159) Every individual's
mind operates in conjunction with numerous other individuals through a network
of unconscious mental interconnections managed moment by moment by the Divine
Human. These unconscious spiritual networks may be called our vertical
community to distinguish them from our horizontal community (our neighborhood
or country on this earth).
(160) God networks people’s spiritual minds so that
appropriate influences are exercised on our conscious willing and thinking
minute by minute in everyday life. This is one of the methods God uses to
maintain steady progress in the endless evolution of the organic human mind.
(161) We are kept by God
in spiritual freedom every moment continuously, from birth to endless eternity.
(162) God effects this ceaseless intervention
process by networking our unconscious spiritual mind with other minds who are
on both sides of a decision-making process – good and evil. This is the
vertical community.
(163) Every
time we make a decision, an indelible and immortal spiritual engram is formed in the will, which is also called the
affective organ. This organic record of all our individual choices, is indelible and eternal, because made of immortal
substances.
(164) In God’s goodness and mercy, our individual
bad record or character can be rendered inoperative. It can replaced by a
heavenly character or “new will,” which is nothing else than the Divine Human’s
Own Character (or “Proprium”) which He wills for us to use as-if our own.
This exchange works as long as we keep thinking
that it is not our own good and truth but God’s good and truth in us. God wills
that His Own Divine good and truth be in each of us as-if our own. It
then appears to us that the good and truth in us is our own, even as
we we think and know that it is God’s Own. We are then in heaven.
But the moment we imagine that they are our own good
and truth, the good and truth in us immediately turn to evil and falsity in us.
We are then in hell.
(165) Both religion and
theistic psychology are grounded in Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech, but in
discretely different ways. Religion incorporates the cultural and historical
features of the overt surface literal meaning of Sacred Scripture. Theistic
psychology does not concern itself with the historical literal meaning of
Sacred Scripture, but with the universal scientific meaning that is hidden
within the literal, and can be extracted by means of the method of correspondences
with enlightenment. Theistic psychology is this extracted knowledge.
(166) Practicing selfish feelings or loves create irrational
forms of thinking in the conscious material mind. These irrational forms of
thinking interfere with the development and growth of our celestial-rational
mind. The celestial-rational mind supplies us with thinking that can oppose
material and selfish loves. Hence maintaining selfish loves by practicing
them prevents us from getting rid of them.
But practicing altruistic feelings and loves create
rational forms of thinking in the conscious material mind. These
rational forms of thinking promote the development and growth of our
celestial-rational mind. Now we can adopt higher order celestial-rational
principles by which we can oppose our selfish loves and render them
inoperative. It is necessary that we acknowledge and believe that this inner
work is actually performed by the Divine Psychologist who wills it that it
appears to us as if we are resisting temptations on our own, thus with effort
and suffering.
(167) When we "awaken" to our immortal
life in the spiritual body, our eternal fate is determined by the quality of
this conscious spiritual mind within our natural mind.
This new conscious spiritual organ is called the
interior-natural or spiritual-natural organ. It is our First Heaven.
(168) In the mental world
of eternity, there is both what is genuine rational and fake rational. The life
of heaven is within the genuine or celestial rational, while the sub-human life
of hell is within the fake rational. This is nothing but a materialized
rational, hence not actually rational but material, bound to spatiotemporal
ideas and limits. The true rational is bound to celestial rational ideas and
conditions.
Which rational we arrive with when resuscitating
into the afterlife determines the state of our life in immortality. Swedenborg discovered
that no one wants to exchange or let go of the loves they arrive with, and
which they have practiced throughout their life connected to the physical body.
(169) Regeneration is the lifelong daily process by
which we cooperate with the Divine Psychologist in controlling and rejecting
all the loves we have that are not viable in heaven, but only in hell. To
cooperate in this process of Divine therapy we need to acquire awareness and
knowledge of rational truths that are in agreement with celestial truths. We
need to cling to these celestial truths and apply them to our combats against
the many temptations we experience in the events of our daily life. God manages
to put in our way all those events that we experience as a battle between our
rational and altruistic loves vs. our irrational and selfish loves.
(170) We are unconscious
of how the syntactic rules of grammar constrain our speaking. We feel totally
free in saying what comes to mind, and yet we are fully bound and limited in
what we say by the syntax of our language and of our culture. Similarly, all our
thinking is in terms of rational categories imposed by the structure of the
mental organs in which thinking takes place.
When you arrive into the spiritual world you must
be able to function rationally, or else you are an irrational person living in
a rational world. And that produces a hell in the mind.
(171) In eternity,
everyone is either all good or all bad, though their intensity and quality vary
much and are unique for every individual.
(172) Atheism is a reaction to blind faith and
dogma, not to God, or to theistic science, or to rational faith. Hence it is a
misconception to think of atheism as the denial of God. Therefore “atheism” is
a misnomer since it is constructed of “a—“ (meaning
removal) and “—theism--” (meaning God). But in atheism “God” is not being
removed, only “blind faith in God” is being removed.
(173) Spiritual geography = mental anatomy =
physical anatomy
Theistic Psychology rests upon an understanding of
this equation.
(174) Spiritual geography is an empirical
description of the objective spiritual world. It is called objective because it
is shared in common by all members of the human race.
(175) When the physical body dies, there is a
breakdown in the physical particles that surround every molecule of the mental
body. It takes about 33 hours for these physical molecules to be fully
loosened, which is done in the process of dying and resuscitation.
(176) As we are awakened
into our immortal spiritual consciousness, the mental body appears in its full
glory to self and all others who are already in their afterlife. It then
becomes obvious by experience that this immortal mental body (or “spiritual
body”) was imperfectly portrayed in the temporary physical body we can still
remember, since now our sensations and emotions are multiplied many times in
intensity and purity, whether joyful or lustful, depending on the inmost loves to
which we have became attached (also known as our “ruling love”).
(177) After we are
awakened from the dying/resuscitation process our ruling love sets aside all
loves that are not congruent with itself. As a result, what is left is our
consciousness that is either in heaven (when our ruling love is heavenly), or it is in the
hell (when our ruling love is hellish). This is called the “second death,” as a
result of which we are inducted in community with those who share a compatible
ruling love. This is because one’s life is always located where the
individual’s loves are—either in heaven or in hell.
(178) As women become
wives they are propelled by an inward drive to conjoin to their husband, and
they are in their inmost joy of being when their husband is willing to go along
in this progressive anatomical conjoining process within marriage.
The wife’s passion and spiritual sweetness extends
as a conjugial sphere all around her, enveloping the husband and all that he
considers his own—his personal space, his money and schedule, his belongings
and friends, his appearance and affections, his preferences and prerogatives as
a man, his attitudes and opinions, judgments, in short, nothing of the man is
left for himself, but everything about him is conjoined, co-appropriated by his
wife.
He feels the process as a gradual invasion of his
external and internal being. He either resists, or gives in to the wife’s
sphere, even though it appears at first like an objectionable mental invasion.
Mostly he resists—to the wife’s pain, suffering, chagrin, desperation, and
inward desolation.
But at last he gets hold of the Doctrine of the
Wife in his rational mind. Now he mostly gives in to his wife’s sphere. The
wife’s sphere begins to rule his outward and inward being. He allows it,
desires it, and prefers it—because he is thinking of the final goal and
destination, which is being one with his wife in
conjugial unity in heaven, endlessly to eternity.
(179) Meaning is a vehicle for consciousness. The
genes of consciousness are therefore discoverable by extracting the rational
structures of meaning that are hidden within the correspondential sense of Sacred
Scripture.
(180) God’s mediate control over our thoughts is
affected by means of correspondences of Divine Speech exteriorizing into the
natural world as Sacred Scripture.
(181) The correspondential meaning of the Old
Testament Sacred Scripture, the New Testament Sacred Scripture, and the
Writings Sacred Scripture form an unbroken rational series of scientific
revelations that took thousands of years to deliver from God to the human mind.
Each sub-unit of revelation marks the beginning of
a new anatomical consciousness in the rational mind of humankind, and delivers
the scientific information that fundamentally alters human understanding and
perception, and through this, the rebuilding of a new human character that is
celestial and immortal.
(182) In the modern age of science, God would not
speak to us in living voice or appear to us visually because this would
paralyze our rational consciousness of God and thus deny us God’s co-Presence, and
rob us of conjugial bliss in eternity. God created heaven in our celestial-rational
mind so that God can be co-Present with us to eternity, and by this conjunction
to make us happy and intelligent to eternity.
(183) Growing up is a controlled alternation
between having hellish feelings or thoughts, and having heavenly feelings or
thoughts. By this oscillation mechanism, God insures that our adult personality
consists of many good traits and not just many evil traits. Armed with these
skills of willing and understanding, young adults can face themselves to
discover who they really want to become--angels or devils. During the rest of
their life as adults here on earth they are going to be faced with this
dilemma, over and over again. God brings to each precisely those experiences
they need to choose in freedom.
(184) If our thoughts and feelings are real, then
it logically follows that there must exist a world outside time, space, and
mass since thoughts and feelings possess neither space, mass, nor time.
(185) What is this mental world
outside time and space where our mental thoughts and feelings can exist?
It is the world of eternity also called the “spiritual
world” and the “afterlife” of eternity.
It
can also be called the mental world of humanity.
Hence it is that we are born into eternity
and are therefore immortal.
Our connection to the physical body and world is
only temporary and brief.
Your thoughts and feelings right now are in the
world of eternity.
Only your electro-chemical brain is in this world.
(186) In mental absorption
time disappears.
What is mental is timeless, consequently eternal.
Mental life is the basis of human immortality
Mental substance is indestructible and permanent.
When we are thinking, we are outside time.
What is mental is real. What is physical is a
representation of reality.
The physical is a representation of the mental.
Every detail of the physical is a correspondence of
a detail in the mental.
What is mental is spiritual. What is physical is
natural.
What is mental or spiritual is eternal. What is
physical or natural is temporary.
The mental is primary. The physical is secondary.
What is physical is material. What is mental is
immaterial or spiritual.
Reductionism in neuroscience is material within
which is nothing. Dualism is material within which is mental.
Materialism in thinking reduces consciousness and
God to nothing. Dualism in thinking puts them back.
(187) When we are being
foolish or clever we hear the truth and contradict it with delight. When we are
being wise or rational we hear the truth and recognize it with delight.
(1) Everything not connected
with something prior to itself falls into nothing (Arcana Coelestia 5084)
(2) Angels have all their blessedness
through truths from good. (Apocalypse Explained 484)
(3) An inclination to love one of the
opposite sex, and with it a capacity for receiving that love, has been
implanted in Christians from birth, for the reason that this love comes from
the Lord alone (Conjugial Love 466).
(4) Wives are by birth forms of love, so
that it is innate in them to wish to be one with their husbands But it is different with husbands; since they are not
by birth forms of love, but designed to receive that love from their wives
(Conjugial Love 216)
(5) The Word is the only doctrine which
teaches how a man must live in the world in order to be happy to eternity.
(Arcana Coelestia 8939)
(6) How important it is to have a right
idea of God can be seen from the fact that the idea of God forms the inmost
element of thought in all who have any religion, for all constituents of
religion and all constituents of worship relate to God. And because God is
universally and specifically involved in all constituents of religion and
worship, therefore without a right idea of God no communication with the
heavens is possible. So it is that every nation in the
spiritual world is allotted its location in accordance with its idea of God as
a person; for in this idea and in no other lies an idea of the Lord.
(Divine Love and Wisdom 13)
(7) The existence of writings in the
heavens is a provision of the Lord for the sake of the Word; for the Word in
its essence is Divine truth, and from it is all heavenly wisdom, both with men
and with angels; for the Word was dictated by the Lord, and what is dictated by
the Lord passes through all the heavens in order and terminates with man.
Thereby it is adapted both to the wisdom of angels and the intelligence of men.
Thereby, too, the angels have a Word, and read it the same as men do on the
earth, and also draw from it their doctrinals, and preach from it. It is the
same Word; but its natural sense, which is the sense of the letter with us,
does not exist in heaven, but only the spiritual sense, which is its internal
sense. What this sense is can be seen in the small treatise on The White Horse
spoken of in the Apocalypse. (Heaven and Hell 259)
(8) A human being is created for
everlasting life, and any person can inherit that life, so long as he lives in
accordance with the means of salvation prescribed in the Word; every Christian,
as well as every non-Christian
who possesses a religion and sound reason, assents to this proposition. (The True Christian Religion 340)
(9) Without the Word there is no
rational conception of the Lord, and thus no salvation (Sacred Scriptures 111)
(10) As to the formation of faith: it is
effected by man's going to the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living
according to them. (The True Christian Religion 347)
(11) Those things which are from one's
own intelligence have no life in them, since nothing good proceeds from man's
proprium (New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 256).
(12) [in the
Word] they are called "drunkards" who believe nothing but what they
apprehend, and for this reason search into the mysteries of faith. And because this is done by means of sensuous
things, either of memory or of philosophy, man being what he is, cannot but
fall thereby into errors. For man's
thought is merely earthly, corporeal, and material, because it is from earthly,
corporeal, and material things, which cling constantly to it, and in which the
ideas of his thought are based and terminated.
(Arcana Coelestia 1072)
(13) Spiritual self-destruction means
that people in the afterlife refuse to let go of their self-imposed spiritual
insanity, thereby keeping themselves in the hells that exist in every human
mind (New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 256).
(14) The intelligence of women is by
nature modest, gracious, peaceable, compliant, soft and gentle, while the
intelligence of men is by nature critical, rough, resistant, argumentative, and
given to intemperance. Evidence that this is the nature of women and the
nature of men is clearly apparent from the body, face, tone of voice, speech,
bearing and behavior of each sex. () From this I could clearly see that a man
is born a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of love. I could also
see what the nature of the intellect is and what the nature of love is in their
beginnings, and thus what a man's intellect in its development would be like
without conjunction with feminine love and eventually conjugial love. (Conjugial Love 218)
(15) The manifestation of the Lord, and
intromission into the spiritual world, surpass all miracles. This has not been
granted to anyone since the creation, as it has been to me. (INVITATION 52)
(16) Affections, which belong to the
will, are nothing but changes of state of the purely organic substances of the
mind, and that thoughts, which belong to the understanding, are nothing but
changes and variations in the form of these substances, and that memory is a
permanent state of these changes and variations. (Divine
(17) It is the essential of love not to
love self, but to love others, and to be conjoined with others by love. It is
the essential of love, moreover, to be loved by others, for thus conjunction is
effected. The essence of all
love consists in conjunction; this, in fact, is its life, which is called
enjoyment, pleasantness, delight, sweetness, bliss, happiness, and felicity.
Love consists in this, that its own should be another's; to feel the joy of
another as joy in oneself, that is loving. But to feel
one's own joy in another and not the other's joy in oneself is
not loving; for this is loving self, while the former is loving the
neighbor. These two kinds of love are diametrically opposed to each other.
Either, it is true, conjoins; and to love one's own, that is, oneself, in
another does not seem to divide; but it does so effectually divide that so far
as any one has loved another in this manner, so far
he afterwards hates him. For such conjunction is by its own action gradually
loosened, and then, in like measure, love is turned to hate. (Divine Love and
Wisdom 47)
(18) The Word teaches that a person is
alive after death, for example where it says that God is not the God of the
dead but of the living, Matt. 22:32; that Lazarus was taken up after death to
heaven, but the rich man was cast down to hell, Luke 16:22,23ff;
that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there, Matt. 8:11; 22:32; Luke 16:23-25,29;
that Jesus told the robber, Today you will be with Me in paradise, Luke 23:43;
and in other statements elsewhere." (Arcana Coelestia 10597)
(19) The Word is the Divine Truth which
is in the Lord and from the Lord Divine Truth has power in itself, and such
power that, by means of it, heaven was created and the world with all things
therein. (Heaven and Hell 137).
(20) Without the Lord's coming into the
world no one could have been saved. It is the same today; and therefore without
the Lord's coming again into the world in Divine truth, which is the Word, no
one can be saved. (The True Christian Religion 3)
(21) The belly corresponds to the way
toward hell, and the draught or privy corresponds to hell; hell is also so
called in the Word. (Arcana Coelestia 8910)
(22) A man cannot stand apart from
thinking evil, but from doing it. (Arcana Coelestia 8910)
(23) As affections and thoughts are
simply changes in the state of the forms of the mind, it follows that memory is
nothing else than a permanent state of these changes. For all changes and
variations of state in organic substances are such that once they have become
habitual they are permanent. Thus the lungs are habituated to produce various
sounds in the trachea, to vary them in the glottis, to articulate them in the
tongue, and to modify them in the mouth; and when once these organic activities
have become habitual such sounds are in the organs and can be reproduced. (Divine
(24) It shall first be explained what a
spirit is, and what an angel is. All persons after death come, in the first
place, into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and
there pass through their own times, that is, their own states, and become
prepared, according to their life, either for heaven or for hell. So long as
people stay in that world they are called spirits.
They who have been raised out of that world into heaven are called angels;
but those who have been cast down into hell are called either satans or devils. So long as
these continue in the world of spirits, those who are preparing for heaven are
called angelic spirits; and those who are
preparing for hell, infernal spirits; meanwhile angelic spirits are
conjoined with heaven, and infernal spirits with hell. All spirits in the
world of spirits are adjoined to people still on earth; because people still on
earth, in respect to the interiors of their minds, are in like manner between
heaven and hell, and through these spirits they communicate with heaven or with
hell according to their life. It is to be observed that the world of
spirits is one thing, and the spiritual world another; the world of spirits is
that which has just been spoken of; but the spiritual world includes that
world, and heaven and hell. (Divine Love and Wisdom 140)
(25) These are the general principles of
all religions by which everyone can be saved. To acknowledge God and to refrain
from doing evil because it is against God are the two things which make
religion to be religion. If one of them is wanting it cannot be called
religion, since to acknowledge God and to do evil is a contradiction; so also
is to do good and yet not acknowledge God, for one is not possible without the
other. It has been provided by the Lord that almost everywhere there should be
some form of religion, and that in every religion there should be these two
principles; and it has also been provided by the Lord that everyone who acknowledges
God and refrains from doing evil because it is against God should have a place
in heaven. For heaven in the complex resembles one Man whose life or soul is
the Lord. In that heavenly Man there are all things which are in a natural man
with that difference which exists between things heavenly and things
natural. (Divine
(26) I anticipate that many who read the
following descriptions and the accounts at the ends of the succeeding chapters
will believe they are figments of my imagination. I swear in truth, however,
that they are not inventions, but actual occurrences to which I was witness.
Nor were they witnessed in any condition of unconsciousness but in a state of
full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me and
send me to teach the doctrines that will be doctrines of the New Church, the
church meant by the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation. To this end He has
opened the inner faculties of my mind and spirit. As a result, it has been made
possible for me to be in the spiritual world with angels and at the same time
in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-five years. (Conjugial
Love 1)
(27) Love, therefore, is the warmth in a
person's life or his vital heat. The warmth of the blood, and also its redness,
have no other origin. The fire of the angelic sun,
which is pure love, causes it. (Conjugial Love 34)
(28) The operation of the Divine
Providence for the salvation of man is said to begin at his birth and to
continue right on to the end of his life. In order to understand this it should
be known that the Lord sees what the nature of a man is, and foresees what he
desires to be, and thus what he will be; and in order that he may be a man and
therefore immortal, the freedom of his will cannot be taken away, as has been
shown above in many places. Therefore the Lord foresees man's state after death
and provides for it from his birth right on to the end of his life. With the
wicked the Lord provides by permitting and continually withdrawing them from
evils; while with the good He provides by leading them to good. Thus the Divine
Providence is unceasing in the work of saving man. (Divine
(29) In the chapter on the Sacred
Scripture I showed that the literal sense of the Word is written by appearances
and correspondences. Each of its details therefore contains a spiritual sense
in which truth is illuminated by its own light, and the literal sense is in
shadow. So to prevent the people of the new church, like those of the old church,
going astray in the shadows obscuring the literal sense of the Word, especially
as regards heaven and hell, how they will live after death, and on the present
occasion about the Lord's coming, the Lord has been pleased to open the sight
of my spirit, thus admitting me to the spiritual world. I have been allowed not
only to talk with spirits and angels, with relations and friends, even with
kings and princes, who have met their end in the natural world, but also to see
the astonishing sights of heaven, and the pitiful sights of hell. So I have
seen how people do not pass their time in some pu
deep in the earth, nor flit around blind and dumb in the air or in empty space,
but live as human beings in a substantial body, in a much more perfect state,
if they come among the blessed, than they experienced previously when living in
material bodies. (The True Christian Religion 771).
(30) SO LONG AS MAN LIVES IN THE WORLD,
HE IS KEPT MIDWAY BETWEEN HEAVEN AND
HELL, AND IS THERE IN SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM, WHICH IS FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
In order to know what freedom of choice is and the nature of it, it is
necessary to know its origin. Especially from a recognition
of its origin it can be known, not only that there is such a thing as freedom
of choice, but also what it is. Its origin is in the spiritual world, where
man's mind is kept by the Lord. Man's mind is his spirit, which lives after
death; and his spirit is constantly in company with its like in the spiritual
world, and at the same time by means of the material body with which it is
enveloped, it is with men in the natural world. Man does not know that in
respect to his mind he is in the midst of spirits, for the reason that the
spirits with whom he is in company in the spiritual world, think and speak spiritually,
while his own spirit thinks and speaks naturally so long as he is in the
material body; and the natural man cannot understand or perceive spiritual
thought and speech, nor the reverse. This is why spirits cannot be seen. (The True Christian Religion 475).
(31) Nothing is permitted to happen that has not been foreseen,
for otherwise, it cannot happen. (Spiritual Experiences 1088)
(32) The thoughts of the spiritual man are incomprehensible and
inexpressible to the natural man, and they cannot be transferred to another
script and another language (The True Christian Religion 280)
(33) The wisdom of wives is superior to that of men. (Conjugial
Love 208:2)
(34) All the moments of life have a series of consequences to
eternity. (Arcana Coelestia 6490)
(35) True Christianity consists in this: that men ought to live
in charity towards the neighbor, that is, to be sincere, to be just, to be upright; thus, to practice sincerity, justice and
goodness for the sake of those things, and to esteem them and venerate them as
Divine. (Spiritual Experiences 5063)
(36) The spiritual world is where man is, and is by no means
remote from him. In a world, every man, as to the interiors of his mind,
is in that world, in the midst of the spirits and angels there; and he thinks
from the light of it, and loves from the heat of it. (Divine Love and Wisdom
92)
(37) All who come into the other life are vastated.
Those who have been in good, in the world, are vastated
as to evils and the thence arising; and they are, then, in their own good and
in the truth then arising. But those who have been in evil, are vastated as to truths
and goods, if they have any; and they are, then, in their own evil and in the
falsity arising from it. Hence, the good become images of their own good,
and the evil, images of their own evil. The latter are, thus, cast down
into hell; the former are raised up to heaven. (Spiritual Experiences 5071)
(38) To think from truth is the human and consequently the
angelic principle itself; and it is a truth that man does not think from
himself, but that it is granted him by the Lord to think, to all appearance as
from himself. (Divine Providence 321)
(39) Everyone knows, or may know, that evil originates from hell
and that good is from heaven. Consequently, everyone may know that so far
as man shuns evil and turns away from it so far he shuns and turns away from
hell. So, too, he may know that so far as anyone shuns evil and turns
away from it so far he wills and loves good; and
consequently so far is he brought out of hell by the Lord and led to
heaven. These things every rational man may see,
provided he knows that there is a heaven and a hell and that evil and good are
from their own respective sources. Now if a man reflects upon the evils
in himself, which is the same thing as examining
himself, and shuns them, he then frees himself from hell and casts it behind
him, and introduces himself into heaven where he sees the Lord face to
face. It is stated that man does this, but he does it as of himself, and
then from the Lord. When a man from a good heart and a pious faith
acknowledges this truth, it lies inwardly concealed in everything that he
afterwards thinks and does as from himself. (Divine Providence 321)
(40) The Word is the only doctrine which teaches how a man must
live in the world in order to be happy to eternity. (Arcana Coelestia 8939)
(41) In respect of the interiors of his mind man is by creation
like an angel, having a like will and a like
understanding. Consequently, if a man has lived in accordance with the
Divine order he becomes after death an angel, with the same wisdom as an angel.
(Heaven and Hell 304)
(42) The human race apart from heaven would be like a chain
without a hook; and heaven without the human race would be like a house without
a foundation. (Heaven and Hell 304)
(43) All the speech of spirits and of angels is also effected by
means of representatives; for by wonderful variations of light and shade they
vividly present before the internal and at the same time before the external
sight of him with whom they speak, all they are thinking about, and insinuate
it by suitable changes of the state of the affections. The
representations that come forth in such speech are not like those before described,
but are quick and instantaneous, being simultaneous with the ideas that belong
to their speech. They are like something that is described in a long
series, while at the same time it is exhibited in an image before the eyes,
for, wonderful to say, all spiritual things themselves whatever can be
representatively exhibited by forms of imagery that are incomprehensible to
man, within which are things of the perception of truth, and still more
interiorly those of the perception of good. Such things are also in man
(for man is a spirit clothed with a body); as is evident from the fact that all
speech perceived by the ear, on ascending toward the interiors, passes into
forms [ideas] not unlike those of sight, and from these into intellectual forms
or ideas, and thus becomes a perception of the sense of the expressions.
Whoever rightly reflects upon these things may know from them that there is in
himself a spirit which is his internal man, and also that after the separation
of the body he will possess such a speech, because he is in the very same
during his life in the world, although it does not appear to him that he is in
it, by reason of the obscurity and darkness which earthly, bodily, and worldly
things induce. (Arcana Coelestia 3342)
(44) From all this the truth is seen that the end of creation was
an angelic heaven from the human race, and consequently man, in whom God can
dwell as in His receptacle; and this is the reason why man was created a form
of Divine order. (The True Christian Religion 66)
(45) The Lord does indeed require humility, adoration,
thanksgivings, and many other things from man, which appear like repaying, and
thus not free; but the Lord does not require these things for His own sake, for
the Divine has no glory from man's humility ,
adoration, and thanksgiving. In the Divine, anything of the love of self
is utterly inconceivable that such things should be done for His
own sake. Rather, they are for the sake of the man himself; for,
when a man is in humility he can receive good from the Lord, because he has
then been separated from the love of self and its evils, which oppose (such
good). Therefore the Lord wills a state of humility in man for his own
sake; because when he is in this state the Lord can flow in with heavenly good.
The case is similar with adoration and with thanksgiving. (Arcana Coelestia
5957)
(46) Faith in its essence is truth, and that everyone is able to
acquire truths from the Word, and that so far as anyone does acquire them for
himself, and loves them, he implants in himself the beginnings of faith. (The
True Christian Religion 356)
(47) A faith of the sense of the letter alone is a persuasive
faith, which is of no avail. (Spiritual Experiences 5084)
(48) But amongst these are not to be reckoned those, who, owing
to immaturity or simplicity, believe the sense of the letter of the Word, and
still live according to the doctrine of the Church; but they are those who
study the Word, despising the whole of the doctrine from the Word. (Spiritual
Experiences 5087)
(49) The reason why they are dangerous, is, because they are able
to persuade almost any of the simple and the upright, that is or that is to be
believed, merely from the external sense of the Word, and without explanation;
and the simple have not exerted themselves, and learned, in the world, that the
external sense of the Word is according to the apprehension of the sensual man
- for the first apprehension of man is sensual; and that this must be the
lowest level of the Word, because in the position of a foundation, or in the
position of the soles of the feet, whereon the body
stands. For the Word is, in the sight of the Lord, like one man; for it
is Divine Truth. Hence, the sense of the letter is its sole; but, still,
there are interiors corresponding to it, in accordance with the connection of
such things as are in man. (Spiritual Experiences 5090)
(50) Every man [in the world] has, with himself, spirits who are
in the other life, and these possess the interiors of the man; therefore, all
things of his memory. They do not, indeed, see the world through his
eyes, but still [they see it] inwardly in him from his ideas. (Spiritual
Experiences 5092)
(51) Marriages are seed-plots of men, and thus seed-plots of
heaven. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(52) A female is born an innocence and
becomes the affection of good, and the male the understanding of truth.
The female becomes the affection of truth, which occurs when she desires to
marry. The male becomes the understanding of truth, which also happens,
when he wishes to love the female sex. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(53) If a man concentrates his love upon his wife, by shunning
adultery as sin, then love with its potency increases daily; but if men take
from that love and consume it with harlots, conjugial love becomes like chaff,
and dies. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(54) What is usual, when love is truly conjugial, is the plane in
which enjoyments form themselves, from within, as upon
a rose bed; and that every separate rose becomes a plane in which interior
enjoyments are formed and variegated, and this to eternity. (Spiritual
Experiences 6110)
(55) Marriage is like the marriage of the will and understanding,
or of affection and thought, in all and every single thing, because it is [the
union] of good and truth. The conjunction, or marriage, of these, may be
illustrated by the marriage of sound and speech, in which it may be clearly
seen. As speech is the form of sound, so man may be described as the form
of the wife; they are one flesh; a man shall cleave to his wife; the wife is
the man's soul, and life, or is the heart of the man; but neither knows
anything else than that the other is his, or hers, and that each is the other's
reciprocally and mutually. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(56) Unless eternity, or eternal conjunction, be
thought of, a woman is not a wife, but a concubine; and from the lack of the
idea of eternity, conjugial love perishes. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(57) In heaven, the wife is spiritual heat, and the husband
spiritual light. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(58) The husband's life enters the wife, through the thighs, and
by means of love. ( Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(59) There is no lasciviousness in conjugial love, for
lasciviousness is unchaste. There is the identical sensation with those
who are in conjugial love; consequently, there is nothing unclean, but
pure. It appears as if there were, but yet there is not. The reason
is,, because inwardly in conjugial love, even to the ultimates, is heaven, and inwardly in the love of adultery
is hell; and the ultimates of each appear similar; as
to their delights, but yet they are not. The difference is not perceived
except by conjugial love. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(60) Conjugial love looks continually to two being one, or one flesh. If conjugial love do not look to
this, [the love] is the love of adultery. They [i.e. a man and wife] are
able to become one, more and more, to eternity. (Spiritual Experiences 6110)
(61) CONCERNING MEMORY
In the other life it is not allowed that one should use his own memory
for the reason, that everyone who draws the past from his own memory, is not
only anxious concerning the future, and vexes himself from the fact that the
present is unlike the past, but he indulges grief in whatever state he is; and
then also, as was perceived, he wishes to live only from himself, for to live
from one's own memory is to live, as it were, from himself which for many
reasons, is not allowed to a spirit, but to a man more than to a spirit.
As a spirit, thinking from the memory of a man, thinks himself to be a man, if
he were to use his own memory he would think he was not the man, but himself;
wherefore for reasons of use, in order that he may be subservient to man, it is
not allowed to exercise his own memory. - 1748, November 13. (Spiritual
Experiences 3962)
(62) From my fourth to my tenth year, I was constantly engaged in
thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual sufferings of men, and several
times I revealed that at which my father and mother wondered....From my sixth
to my twelfth year my delight was to discourse with clergymen concerning
Faith-that the life thereof is love, and the love that gives life is the love
of one's neighbor. (Letters, 1769)
(63) There are some who are in doubt before they deny, and there
are some who are in doubt before they affirm. They who are in doubt
before they deny are they who incline to a life of evil; and when this life
carries them away, then insofar as they think of the matters in question they
deny them. But they who are in doubt before they affirm are they who
incline to a life of good; and when they suffer themselves to be bent to this
by the Lord, then insofar as they think about those thins
so far they affirm. (Arcana Coelestia 2568)
(64) There are therefore two principles; one of which leads to
all folly and insanity, and the other to all intelligence and wisdom. The
former principle is to deny all things, or to say in the heart that we cannot
believe them until we are convinced by what we can apprehend, or perceive by
the senses; this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and is
to be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm the
things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe within
ourselves that they are true because the Lord has said them: this is the
principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and is to be called the
affirmative principle.
(65) I spoke with Newton concerning a vacuum, and concerning
colors. Concerning a vacuum he said, that in the world he had believed in the
existence of a vacuum; but when the angels perceived that he had an idea of a
vacuum, as an idea of nothing, they turned themselves away, saying that they cannot
bear the idea of nothing, since when there is an idea of nothing the idea of
the essence of things perishes. And when the idea of the essence of things
perishes, the idea of thought, understanding, affection, love, and of will with
men and angels perishes, which things are not given in nothing.
(66) NEWTON. I spoke with him
several times. He is a thoroughly sincere man, and is among his own, and is
beloved. He told me that he now knows that the Lord is the sun
of the angelic heaven, and that all light, which in its essence is Divine
Intelligence, and which gives intelligence to angels and also to men, is from
Him; although men are ignorant that that light enlightens the understanding,
and causes them to think intelligently. He also knew that there was one Life
which causes everyone to live, and that that Life appears amongst them as
light, and that life is from it also, that it inflows into man's inmosts, and brings it about that it appears to man as if
from himself. He also stated that, where he is, there appear colors much more
brilliant than in the world, and of much greater variety; also, that the colors
there originate from the modification of the Divine Light into life-receiving
form in angels and men, and that from it are the varieties of understanding.
Respecting the planes of colors, he spoke in this fashion: that there were. . . three: white from light, red from fire, and black
from [shade]; and that all the varieties of colors arise therefrom.
(67) The
inward level of meaning in the Word cannot be seen at all unless the meaning of
the letter is almost blotted out. This applies also in other things, as in
philosophical material, when the mind dwells on the words by themselves, as on
trivialities; or when a person is absorbed in outer and physical objects. A
like principle applies when it comes to the more inward level of meaning.
(68) Being
Divine the Word contains within itself things that are infinite which come from
its first source, and as a consequence contains things beyond description such
as constitute angelic wisdom; but in its lowest form it contains only such
things as those that man is able to grasp.
(69) The Word
exists in all the heavens, and it is read there as it is in the world, and
sermons are based on it. For it is the Divine Truth which is
the source of the angels' intelligence and wisdom.
(70) The Word is not understood except by those who are
enlightened.
(71) They who
read the Word from the love of truth and good, are enlightened from it, but not
they who read it from the love of fame, gain, or honor, thus from the love of
self.
(72) The Word
is not understood except by a rational man; for to believe anything without
having an idea of the subject, and without a rational view of it, is only to
retain words in the memory, destitute of all the life of perception and
affection, which is not believing.
(73) The Word
in the sense of the letter is natural.
(74) Before
the Lord the universal Church on the earth is as one Man.
(75) Wisdom,
like every perfection, increases towards the interiors, thus to the extent that
interiors are opened.
(76) This New
Church, truly Christian, which at this day is being established by the Lord,
will endure to eternity, as is proved from the Word of both Testaments; also it
was foreseen from the creation of the world; and it will be the crown of the
four preceding churches, because it will have true faith and true charity.
Note: these particular selections were made by Swedenborg.
Future research might examine the correspondences of the selections to see if
they are arranged in an internal rational series of meanings.
( 1) This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His
mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together,
she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)
( 2) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (Matthew 2:7)
( 3) Produce fruit in
keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have
Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up
children for Abraham. (Matthew 3:8-9)
( 4) As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the
water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting on him. (Matthew 3:16)
( 5) Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and
worship me." (Matthew 4:8-9)
( 6) Blessed are the merciful, for they will
be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
will be called sons of God. (Matthew
5:7-9)
( 7) Blessed are those
who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all
kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is
your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)
( 8) "You are the salt of the earth. But
if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no
longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on
its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let
your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your
Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)
( 9) "Do not
think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth
disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished. (Matthew
5:17-18)
(10)
Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches
others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but
whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the
kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19-20)
(11) "You have heard that it was
said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be
subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, ' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who
says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if
you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your gift there in
front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and
offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24)
(12) "Settle matters quickly with
your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him
on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you
over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth,
you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:25-26)
(13)
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery. But I
tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew
5:27-28)
(14)
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It
is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be
thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your
whole body to go into hell. (Matthew
5:29-30)
(15) "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of
divorce. But I tell you that anyone who
divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman
commits adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)
(16) "Again, you have heard that it was
said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you
have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear
at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is
his footstool; or by
(17) "You have heard that it was
said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and
take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go
with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the
one who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:38-42)
(18) "You have heard that it was said,
'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in
heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on
the righteous and the unrighteous.
(Matthew 5:43-45)
(19)
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even
the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are
you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore,
as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew
5:46-47)
(20)
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to
be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I
tell you the truth, they have received their reward in
full. But when you give to
the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so
that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4)
(21) "And when you pray, do not be
like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on
the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth,
they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room,
close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your
Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do
not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need
before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
(22)
"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men
when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if
you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:9-15)
(23) "When you fast, do not look somber as
the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward
in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it
will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who
is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward
you. (Matthew 6:16-18)
(24) "Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in
and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20)
(25)
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did
not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matthew 6:34)
(26)
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good
tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear
bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize
them. (Matthew 16-20)
(27)
"Therefore everyone
who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man
who built his house on the rock. The
rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that
house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (Matthew 7:24-25)
(28)
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into
practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great
crash." (Matthew 7:26-27)
(29)
But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:13)
(30)
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the
(31)
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad
and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33)
(32)
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred,
sixty or thirty times what was sown.
(Matthew 13:8)
(33) But the one who received the
seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.
He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was
sown." (Matthew 13:23)
(34)
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I
forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven
times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but
seventy-seven times. "Therefore, the
kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his
servants. (Matthew 18:21-23)
(35)
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not
steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, 'and 'love
your neighbor as yourself."
(Matthew 19:19)
(36)
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the
(37) "Which of the two did what his father
wanted?" "The first," they answered. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the
truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the
(38)
Therefore I tell you that the
(39)
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got
together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind’. This is the first and
greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' (Matthew 22:34-39)
(40) Because of the
increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but
he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
(Matthew 24-12)
(41)
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world. (Matthew
25:34)
(42)
"The time has come," he said. "The
(43)
He told them, "The secret of the
(44) Still others, like seed sown among
thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of
wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it
unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and
produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown." (Mark 4:18-20)
(45)
And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing
here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
truth. These are those who do not taste death.
(Mark 9:1)
(46) And if your eye causes you to sin,
pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the
(47)
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the
little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
(48) Jesus looked around and said to his
disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the
(49) Seeing in the distance a fig tree
in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found
nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the
tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples
heard him say it. (Mark 11:13-14)
(50) In the morning, as they went
along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. (Mark
(51)
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing
that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind and with all
your strength. 'The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than
these." (Mark 12:28-31)
(52)
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in
saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your
heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your
neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely,
he said to him, "You are not far from the
(53) While Jesus was teaching in the
temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that
the Christ is the son of David? (Mark
(54)
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you
that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is
already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good
fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:8-9)
(55)
Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the
(56)
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray
for those who mistreat you. If
someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes
your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if
anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you
would have them do to you. (Luke
6:27-31)
(57)
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good
to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you
expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,'
expecting to be repaid in full. (Luke
6:32-34)
(58)
But love your enemies, do good to them, and
lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be
great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the
ungrateful and wicked. Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
(Luke 6:35-36)
(59) "Do not judge,
and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will
be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running
over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you." He also told them
this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall
into a pit? (Luke 6:37-39)
(60)
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good
fruit. (Luke 6:43)
(61) I tell you, among those born of women
there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the
(62)
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved
much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." (Luke 7:47)
(63) Still other seed
fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was
sown."
When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke
8:8)
(64)
The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear,
but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and
pleasures, and they do not mature. But
the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear
the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. (Luke 8:14-15)
(65) Jesus replied, "No one who puts his
hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the
(66)
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, `The
(67)
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal
life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read
it?" He answered: " 'Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.'" "You
have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." (Luke
10:25-28)
(68)
As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be
reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the
judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer
throw you into prison. I tell
you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny." (Luke 12:58-59)
(69)
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard,
and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of
the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this
fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more
year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If
not, then cut it down.' " (Luke
13:6-9)
(70) On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in
one of the synagogues, (Luke
(71)
"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you
yourselves thrown out. (Luke 13:28)
(72) People will come from east and west
and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:29)
(73) Once, having been asked by the
Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom
of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here
it is,' or `There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)
(74)
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the
(75)
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)
(76) But
whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly
that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:21)
(77) but
I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. (John 5:42)
(78) "A new command I give you:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are
my disciples, if you love one another."
(John 13:34-35)
(79) You may ask me for anything in my name, and I
will do it. (John 14:14)
(80) "If you love me, you will obey
what I command. (John 14:15)
(81) On that day you will
realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them,
he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I
too will love him and show myself to him."
(John 14:20-21)
(82) Jesus
replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23)
(83) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the
gardener. He cuts off every
branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the
word I have spoken to you. Remain
in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must
remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:1-4)
(84)
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. (John 15:5)
(85)
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away
and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain
in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:6-8)
(86)
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love. (John 15:9)
(87)
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have
obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I
have loved you. (John 15:10-12)
(88)
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay
down his life for his friends. You are
my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a
servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you
friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in
my name. This is my command:
Love each other. (John 15:13-17)
(89) "If the world hates you, keep in mind
that it hated me first. If
you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the
world hates you. (John 15:18-19)
(90) When they had finished
eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love
me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus
said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do
you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love
me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus
asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you
know all things; you know that I love you." (John21:15-17)
(91) And was there until the death
of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the
prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matthew 2:15)
(92) And Jesus, when he was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16-17)
(93) When Jesus came into the coasts
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom
do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some
say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye
that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and
said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven. (Matthew 16:13-17)
(94) While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold
a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)
(95) He trusted in God; let him deliver
him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. Now when
the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake,
and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matthew 27:43, 54)
(96) And straightway coming up out
of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending
upon him (Mark 1:10)
(97) And there was a cloud that
overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And as they came
down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what
things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. (Mark 9:7,
9)
(98) But he held his peace, and
answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou
the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said,
I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven. (Mark 14:61-62)
(99) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father David: And the angel answered and
said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:31-32, 35)
(100) Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the
heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove
upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said,
Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:21-22)
(101) And
there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
(Luke 9:35)
(102) All things are delivered to me
of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but
the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will
reveal him. (Luke 10:22)
(103) And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father,) full of grace and truth. No man hath seen God at any
time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because
I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest
thou? thou shalt see greater
things than these. (John 1:14, 18, 50)
(104) And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in
heaven. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is
not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:13, 16-18)
(105) For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may
marvel. For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son: That all men should honour the Son, even
as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth
not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the
Son of man. (John 5:20-27)
(106) And
we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
(John 6:69)
(107) They
answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born
in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard
that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And he said,
Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. (John 9:34-35, 38)
(108) If he
called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be
broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the
world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son
of God? (John 10:35-36)
(109) And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:30-31)
(end of
document)
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for each author, click here:
Leon James || Emmanuel Swedenborg
|| Jesus of Nazareth
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Leon James Home Page
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http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leon.html
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http://e-swedenborg.com/tp/articles.htm