Frequently Asked Questions

Concerning Christianity and Swedenborg's Theology  

FAQ: What books are in the Word and what are apocrypha?

"The books of the Word are all those which have the internal sense; but those books which have not the internal sense, are not the Word. The books of the Word, in the Old Testament, are the five Books of Moses, the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges, the two Books of Samuel, the two Books of Kings, the Psalms of David, the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi: and in the New Testament, the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; and the Apocalypse. The rest have not the internal sense" (Arcana Coelestia n. 10325 or Heavenly Doctrine n. 266).

FAQ: Why different testaments and books in the Word?  

"As regards the Word particularly, it has existed in every age, though not the Word we possess at the present day. Another Word existed in the Most Ancient Church before the Flood, and yet another Word in the Ancient Church after the Flood. Then came the Word written through Moses and the Prophets in the Jewish Church, and finally the Word written through the Evangelists in the new Church. The reason why the Word has existed in every age is that by means of the Word there is a communication between heaven and earth, and also that the Word deals with goodness and truth, by which a person is enabled to live in eternal happiness. In the internal sense therefore the Lord alone is the subject, for all goodness and truth are derived from Him" (Arcana Coelestia n. 2895).

FAQ: Which Bible did Swedenborg use in writing doctrine/theology?

 

Primarily the Latin version of the Bible by Sebastian Schmidius was used along with checking the renderings of the verses in other, original Bible texts in their original languages.

FAQ: Is Swedenborg a Universalist?  

Swedenborg speaks of universal principles of religion from a Christian standpoint but the term "Universalist" has come to refer to a set of beliefs that are distinctly not part of Swedenborg's doctrine/theology. Some of the universals of religion are as follows: 

"That God is one, and that there is a conjunction of charity and faith" (Soul and Body n. 20). 

Also, "This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is, omnipresent [in all places at all times]; likewise omniscient [all knowing] and omnipotent [all powerful]. Everyone praying to God, therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the truth flows in from the Lord" (Divine Providence n. 157). 

Also, "There are three essentials of the church: acknowledgment of the divine of the Lord, acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word [Bible], and the life which is called charity" (Divine Providence n. 259[3]). 

Also, "Every man [or woman] can be saved, and those are saved who acknowledge God and live rightly" (Divine Providence n. 325). 

Also, "to do good to the neighbour for the sake of God, thus with God and from God, is what is called religion (Apocalypse Revealed  n. 484).

FAQ: Are "Swedenborgians" Christians?

In the Swedenborgian denomination of the Christian Church, Jesus Christ is the "I AM" or God Himself in a visible body. 

"For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." -- Colossians 2:9 

"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" -- John 14:9 

"Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you Before Abraham was, I AM." -- John 8:58

"God is one." (Galatians 3:20)

In the Swedenborgian denomination of the Christian Church, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Good, the Truth and what comes forth from the marriage of Good and Truth, or the two elements of God and the resultant action, just like the soul, the body and the works in a single person. Emanuel Swedenborg did not start a church, produce a new Bible, or claim to have written scripture. Instead, Swedenborg claims to have been allowed to write down angelic wisdom in a new and more accurate doctrine for the Christian Church. This doctrine or "Universal Theology of the New Church" seeks to prove through reason and good interpretation that Jesus Christ is indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords who alone can enlighten individuals as to Jesus Christ's (or God's) sovereignty and divinity. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can instruct mankind from the Bible (for the books that are scripture in the Bible see above) and the Lord appears to mankind in truth from the Word.

"Swedenborgians," as all Christians do, acknowledge that the Word [or Bible] is holy and that the Lord possesses the divine, and these two are essentials of the Christian church. See Divine Providence n. 256 [3].

FAQ: Why aren't more miracles done to convert people to Christianity?

"When only a miracle leads a person to acknowledgment of God and to adoration and piety, he acts from the natural and not the spiritual man. For a miracle infuses belief by an external and not an internal way, thus from the world and not from heaven. The Lord enters man by an internal way, by the Word and by doctrine and preaching from it. As miracles close this way, no miracles are done today" (Divine Providence n. 131). 

Man is not brought by external means to think and will, thus to love and believe what pertains to religion, but the man brings himself and compels himself to do so. Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and freedom. (Divine Providence n. 129). 

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." -- Rev. 3:20 KJV 

Miracles do not induce faith. "That miracles are of this nature can be clearly established from those performed in the presence of the people of Judah and Israel. Although they beheld many miracles in the land of Egypt and later at the Red Sea and others in the Wilderness and particularly on Mt. Sinai when the Law was promulgated, nevertheless, in a month's time while Moses tarried on that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf and hailed it as Jehovah who had led them out of the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4-6). Again, it is plain from the miracles done later in the land of Canaan; nevertheless the people fell away time and again from the prescribed worship. It is equally plain from the miracles which the Lord did before their eyes when He was in the world; yet they crucified Him. (Divine Providence n. 132).

FAQ: Do "Swedenborgians" believe in the Holy Trinity? 

The idea of God, with all conception of Him, having been thus rent asunder, it is my purpose to treat, in their order, of God the Creator, of the Lord the Redeemer, and of the Holy Spirit the Operator, and lastly of the Divine trinity, to the end that what has been rent asunder may be again made whole; which is done when the reason of man is convinced by the Word and by light therefrom that there is a Divine trinity, and that the trinity is in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ, like the soul, the body, and what goes forth from these, in man; and that thus this article in the Athanasian Creed is true:" 

"In Christ God and man, or the Divine and the Human, are not two, but are in one person; and as the rational soul and the flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ." -- True Christian Religion n.4[3]:

FAQ: Do Christians believe in one God or three Gods?

The Christian religion teaches that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only One and the very Self that has life in Himself. 

"All who acknowledge and worship any other God than the Lord the Savior, Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah God Himself in human form, sin against this first commandment. Those also sin against it who persuade themselves of the actual existence of three Divine persons from eternity. For as they confirm themselves in that error, they become more and more natural and corporeal, and at length are unable to comprehend interiorly any Divine truth; and if they listen to it and accept it, they still defile it and cover it up with fallacies. They may therefore be compared to those who dwell in the lowest story or the cellar of a house, and in consequence hear nothing of the conversation of those who are in the second and third stories, because the floor above their heads keeps the sound from penetrating to them. [2] The human mind is like a house of three stories, in the lowest of which are those who have confirmed themselves in favor of three Gods from eternity, while in the second and third stories are those who acknowledge and believe in one God under a visible human form, and that the Lord God the Savior is He" (True Christian Religion n. 296). 

Also - THE GOD OF HEAVEN IS THE LORD 

"First of all it must be known who the God of heaven is, since upon that all the other things depend. Throughout all heaven no other than the Lord alone is acknowledged as the God of heaven. There it is said, as He Himself taught, 

That He is one with the Father; that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father; that he who sees Him sees the Father; and that everything that is holy goes forth from Him (John 10:30, 35; 14:9-11; 16:13-15). 

I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord. They also said that those of the church who come from this world having an idea of three Divine beings cannot be admitted into heaven, since their thought wanders from one Divine being to another; and it is not allowable there to think three and say one.{1} Because in heaven everyone speaks from his thought, since speech there is the immediate product of the thought, or the thought speaking. Consequently, those in this world who have divided the Divine into three, and have adopted a different idea of each, and have not made that idea one and centered it in the Lord, cannot be received into heaven, because in heaven there is a sharing of all thoughts, and therefore if any one came thinking three and saying one, he would be at once found out and rejected. But let it be known that all those who have not separated what is true from what is good, or faith from love, accept in the other life, when they have been taught, the heavenly idea of the Lord, that He is the God of the universe. It is otherwise with those who have separated faith from life, that is, who have not lived according to the precepts of true faith" (Heaven and Hell n.2).

FAQ: Do "Swedenborgians" believe in Hell or the Devil? 

Swedenborg states "a perception of the sphere of falsity from evil that flows forth from hell has often been granted me. It was like a perpetual effort to destroy all that is good and true, combined with anger and a kind of fury at not being able to do so, especially an effort to annihilate and destroy the Divine of the Lord, and this because all good and truth are from Him. But out of heaven a sphere of truth and good was perceived, whereby the fury of the effort ascending from hell was restrained. The result of this was an equilibrium. This sphere from heaven was perceived to come from the Lord alone, although it appeared to come from the angels in heaven. It is from the Lord alone, and not from the angels, because every angel in heaven acknowledges that nothing of good and truth is from himself, but all is from the Lord" (Heaven and Hell n. 538). 

"It has been believed heretofore in the world that there is one devil that presides over the hells; that he was created an angel of light; but having become rebellious he was cast down with his crew into hell. This belief has prevailed because the devil and satan, and also lucifer, are mentioned by name in the Word, and the Word in those places has been understood according to the sense of the letter. But by "devil" and "satan" there hell is meant, "devil" meaning the hell that is behind, where the worst dwell, who are called evil genii; and "satan" the hell that is in front, where the less wicked dwell, who are called evil spirits; and "lucifer" those that belong to Babel, or Babylon, who would extend their dominion even into heaven. That there is no one devil to whom the hells are subject is evident also from this, that all who are in the hells, like all who are in the heavens, are from the human race (see n. 311-317); and that those who have gone there from the beginning of creation to this time amount to myriads of myriads, and every one of them is a devil in accord with his opposition to the Divine while he lived in the world" (Heaven and Hell n. 544).

FAQ: How could a loving God cast people into hell? 

"And I have the keys of hell and death, signifies that He alone can save. By "keys" is signified the power of opening and shutting; here the power of opening hell, that man may be brought forth, and of shutting, lest, when he is brought forth, he should enter again. For man is born in evils of all kinds, thus in hell, for evils are hell; he is brought out of it by the Lord, to whom belongs the power of opening it. That by "having the keys of hell and death," is not meant the power of casting into hell, but the power of saving, is because it immediately follows after these words: 

Behold, I am alive for ages of ages; 

by which is signified that He alone is eternal life (n. 60); and the Lord never casts anyone into hell, but man casts himself. By "keys" is signified the power of opening and shutting, in Revelation also (3:7; 9:1; 20:1; also in Isa. 22:21, 22; in Matt. 16:19; and in Luke 11:52). The power of the Lord is not only over heaven, but also over hell; for hell is kept in order and connection by oppositions against heaven; for which reason, He who rules the one must necessarily rule the other; otherwise man could not be saved; to be saved is to be brought out of hell" (Apocalypse Revealed n. 62).

FAQ: How can Swedenborg say there is marriage in heaven?

 

Heaven and Hell 382. [a.] In the inmost heaven there is genuine marriage love because the angels there are in the marriage of good and truth, and also in innocence. The angels of the lower heavens are also in marriage love, but only so far as they are in innocence; for marriage love viewed in itself is a state of innocence; and this is why consorts who are in the marriage love enjoy heavenly delights together, which appear before their minds almost like the sports of innocence, as between little children; for everything delights their minds, since heaven with its joy flows into every particular of their lives. For the same reason marriage love is represented in heaven by the most beautiful objects. I have seen it represented by a maiden of indescribable beauty encompassed with a bright white cloud. It is said that the angels in heaven have all their beauty from marriage love. Affections and thought flowing from that love are represented by diamond-like auras with scintillations as if from carbuncles and rubies, which are attended by delights that affect the interiors of the mind. In a word, heaven itself is represented in marriage love, because heaven with the angels is the conjunction of good and truth, and it is this conjunction that makes marriage love. 382. [b.] Marriages in heaven differ from marriages on the earth in that the procreation of offspring is another purpose of marriages on the earth, but not of marriages in heaven, since in heaven the procreation of good and truth takes the place of procreation of offspring. The former takes the place of the latter because marriage in heaven is a marriage of good and truth (as has been shown above); and as in that marriage good and truth and their conjunction are loved above all things so these are what are propagated by marriages in heaven. And because of this, in the Word births and generations signify spiritual births and generations, which are births and generations of good and truth; mother and father signify truth conjoined to good, which is what procreates; sons and daughters signify the truths and goods that are procreated; and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law conjunction of these, and so on.# All this makes clear that marriages in heaven are not like marriages on earth. In heaven marryings are spiritual, and cannot properly be called marryings, but conjunctions of minds from the conjunction of good and truth. But on earth there are marryings, because these are not of the spirit alone but also of the flesh. And as there are no marryings in heaven, consorts there are not called husband and wife; but from the angelic idea of the joining of two minds into one, each consort designates the other by a name signifying one's own, mutually and reciprocally. This shows how the Lord's words in regard to marrying and giving in marriage (Luke 20:35, 36), are to be understood.

FAQ: What happens to little children that die? 

"As soon as children are raised from the dead, which takes place immediately after death, they are taken up into Heaven and committed to the care of angels” (Heaven and Hell n.332).

 

FAQ: Where is heaven and where is the church?

 

"Heaven is not located on high, but where the good of love is, and this resides within a person, wherever he or she might be" (Arcana Coelestia 8153).  

"The Lord’s church is spread over the whole globe, and so is universal. All who live a good life according to their own religious belief are members of it. Heaven is of such a nature that all who have lived well, of whatever religion, have a place there" (Heaven and Hell 323 and Divine Providence 330).

“The church comes from the Lord and it exists in people who go to Him and live according to His commandments” (Conjugial Love 129). 

 

FAQ: What is faith?

 

Faith is truth acknowledged in the heart" (Apocalypse Explained 813).

 

FAQ: Were the ten commandment "nailed to the cross?"

 

No.  See Luke 18 and Romans 13.  Jesus Christ and Paul said follow the commandments.

 

FAQ: Is this life your only chance of entering heaven?

 

"There is granted to everyone after death the opportunity of amending his life, if it is at all possible" (Divine Providence 380).

 

FAQ: If God is One, why did Jesus pray to the Father?

 

Arcana Coelestia 1999 [2] It is well known from the Word, in the Gospels, that the Lord adored and prayed to Jehovah, His Father, and that He did so as though to Someone other than Himself, even though Jehovah was within Him. But the state that the Lord experienced at such times was the state of His humiliation, the nature of which has been discussed in Volume One, namely this, that at such times as these He was in the infirm human derived from the mother. But to the extent He cast this off and took on the Divine His state was different, which state is called the state of His glorification. In the first state He adored Jehovah as Someone other than Himself, even though He was within Him, for, as has been stated, His Internal was Jehovah. In the latter state however, that is to say, the state of glorification, He spoke to Jehovah as to Himself, since He was Jehovah Himself. [3] The truth of all this however cannot be grasped unless one knows what the internal is and how the internal operates into the external, and furthermore how the internal and external are distinct and separate and yet joined together. The matter may be illustrated however by means of something similar, namely by means of the internal with man and of its influx and operation into the external with him. For the fact that man has an internal, an interior or rational, and an external, see what has appeared already in 1889, 1940. Man's internal is that which makes him human and distinguishes him from animals. It is by means of this internal that man lives on after death and for ever, and by means of it the Lord can raise him up among angels. It is the prior or primary form from which anyone becomes and is a human being, and it is by means of this internal that the Lord is united to man. The heaven itself that is nearest to the Lord consists of these human internals, but being above even the inmost angelic heaven these internals therefore belong to the Lord Himself. In this way the entire human race is directly present beneath the eyes of the Lord. Distance, a visible feature of this sublunary world, does not exist in heaven, still less above heaven - see what has been mentioned from experience in 1275, 1277. [4] These inward aspects of men possess no life in themselves but are recipient forms of the Lord's life. To the extent then that anyone is under the influence of evil, both that of his own doing and that which is hereditary, he has been so to speak separated from this internal which is the Lord's and resides with the Lord, and so has been separated from the Lord. For although that human internal is joined to the person and cannot be separated from him, yet to the extent he moves away from the Lord he does in a way separate himself from it, see 1594. But such separation is not a complete severance from that human internal - for if it were, man would no longer be able to live after death; but it is a lack of harmony and agreement with it on the part of his capacities which are beneath it, that is, of his rational and external man. Insofar as disharmony and disagreement are present there is no conjunction, but insofar as they are absent man is joined to the Lord by means of the internal, which is achieved in the measure that he is moved by love and charity, for love and charity effect conjunction. Such is the situation with man. [5] But the Lord's Internal was Jehovah Himself, since He was conceived from Jehovah, who cannot be divided or become the relative of another, like a son who has been conceived from a human father. For unlike the human, the Divine is not capable of being divided but is and remains one and the same. To this Internal the Lord united the Human Essence. Moreover because the Lord's Internal was Jehovah it was not, like man's internal, a recipient form of life, but life itself. Through that union His Human Essence as well became life itself. Hence the Lord's frequent declaration that He is Life, as in John, As the Father has Life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have Life in Himself. John 5:26. And elsewhere besides this in the same gospel, 1:4; 5:21; 6:33, 35, 48; 11:25. 'The Son' is used to mean the Lord's Human Essence. To the extent therefore that the Lord was in the human which He received by heredity from the mother, He appeared to be distinct and separate from Jehovah, and worshipped Jehovah as Someone other than Himself. But to the extent He cast off this human, the Lord was not distinct and separate from Jehovah but one with Him. The first state, as has been mentioned, was the state of the Lord's humiliation, but the second the state of His glorification.