Spiritual background for EXODUS 35    previous  -  next  -  text  -  Exodus  -  BM Home  -  Full Page

THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY AND FAITH

AC 10714. There are two things which make the life of man--love and faith. Love makes the life of his will, and faith the life of his understanding; consequently such as the love is, and such as the faith is, such is the life.

AC 10715. The love of good and the derivative faith of truth make the life of heaven, and the love of evil and the derivative faith of falsity make the life of hell.

AC 10716. The Divine of the Lord makes the heavens, and heaven is with everyone according to his reception of love and of faith from the Lord.

AC 10717. Heaven is present with all, both angels and men, who receive love and faith from the Lord; and therefore those come into heaven after death who have heaven in them during their life in the world.

AC 10718. Those who have heaven in them desire the good of all, and feel delight in benefiting others, not for the sake of themselves and the world, but for the sake of the good, and for the sake of the truth, which is so to be done. But those who have hell in them desire evil to all, and feel delight in doing evil to others. If these feel delight in benefiting others, it is not for the sake of what is good and true, but for the sake of themselves and the world.

AC 10719. Heaven with man is in his internal, thus in his thinking and willing; and from this is in the external, that is, in his speaking and doing. But heaven is not in the external without the internal, for all hypocrites can speak well and do well, but not think well and will well. By thinking well, and willing well, is meant thinking and willing what is from the love of good, and from the faith of truth.

AC 10720. When a man comes into the other life, which takes place immediately after death, it is evident whether heaven is in him, or hell; but not while he lives in the world. For in the world only the external appears, and not the internal; when as in the other life the internal stands open, because the man then lives in respect to his spirit.

AC 10721. From all this it can be seen what makes heaven, namely, love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, and likewise faith, but this latter only in so far as it has life from these loves. Hence it is again evident that the Lord‘s Divine makes heaven, for both this love and the derivative faith are from the Lord, and whatever is from the Lord is Divine.

AC 10722. Eternal happiness, which is also called heavenly joy, exists with those who are in love and faith toward the Lord from the Lord. This love, and this faith, have this joy in them; and after death the man who has heaven in him comes into this joy. In the meantime it lies hidden in his internal.

AC 10723. In the heavens there is a communion of all goods. There the peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness of all are communicated to everyone, and that of everyone is communicated to all, yet to each according to the reception of love and of faith from the Lord. From this it is evident how great in heaven are the peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness.

AC 10724. Those in whom reign the love of self and the love of the world, do not know what heaven is, and what is the happiness of heaven, and it appears incredible to them that there is any happiness in other loves than these; when yet the happiness of heaven enters only in so far as these loves are removed, as ends. The happiness which succeeds on their removal is so great that it surpasses all man’s apprehension.

ON THE FIFTH EARTH IN THE STARRY HEAVEN

AC 10734. I was conducted to yet another earth that is in the universe beyond our solar world, which was effected by changes of the state of my mind, thus in respect to my spirit. For as already stated several times, a spirit is conducted from place to place no otherwise than by changes of the state of his interiors; but which changes appear to him as advancings from place to place, or as journeyings. These changes went on continuously for about ten hours before I came from the state of my life to the state of their life, thus before I was brought there in respect to my spirit. The Lord alone is able successively to change the state of mind in this way, so that at last it approaches the state of another person who is so far distant. I was carried toward the east and to the left, and I seemed to be gradually raised above the horizontal plane; and I was also allowed clearly to observe the progression and advancement from the former place, until finally those from whom I had departed were no longer in sight; and meanwhile as we went along I spoke about various matters to the spirits who were with me.

AC 10735. There was also with me a certain spirit who during his life in the world had been a very pathetic preacher and writer. From the idea I had about him the attendant spirits supposed that he was pre-eminently a Christian at heart; for in the world an idea is conceived and a judgment is formed from the preaching and from the writings, and not from the life unless this is conspicuous; and if anything of an inconsistent life appears, it is nevertheless excused, because the idea (or thought and perception) about anyone draws everything over to its side.

AC 10736. I afterward discerned that in respect to my spirit I was in the starry heaven far beyond the world of our sun, for this could be discerned from the changes of state and the consequent apparent continuous progression during almost ten hours. At last I heard spirits speaking who were near some earth, which I afterward saw. When I approached them, after some conversation, they said that they are sometimes visited by guests from a distance who speak to them about God, and confuse the ideas of their thought. They also showed the way by which they come, from which it was perceived that they were spirits from our earth. And when they were asked in what they had confused them, they said by their telling them that it is necessary to believe in a Divine that is distinguished into three Persons, which they nevertheless call one God. And when the idea of their thought is examined, it appears as a Trine that is not continuous but discrete; and with some as three Persons conversing together; and although they call each Person "God," and have a different idea of each, they nevertheless say "one God." They greatly complained that these guests confuse them by thinking of three and saying one, when yet they ought to think as they speak, and speak as they think. The preacher who was with me was then also examined in respect to the idea which he had of one God and three Persons. He represented three Gods, yet these a one by continuity, but he set forth this trinal one as invisible because Divine. And when he set this forth it was perceived that he was then thinking of the Father only, and not of the Lord, and that his idea of an invisible God was nothing but an idea of nature in its first principles, the result of which was that the inmost of nature was to him his Divine. Be it known that in the other life the idea of everyone’s thought on any subject is presented to the life, and that by this everyone is examined in respect to the nature of his faith; and also that the idea of thought concerning God is the principal of all; for by this idea, if it he genuine, conjunction is effected with heaven, because it is the Divine which makes heaven.

AC 10737. They were next asked what idea they have about God. They replied that they do not conceive of an invisible God, but of a visible God under the human form; and that they know this not only from interior perception, but also from His having appeared to them as a Man, adding that if according to the idea of some of their visitors, and of the preacher, they were to conceive of God as invisible, they could not think of God at all, because what is invisible does not fall into any idea of thought. I perceived that this was because what is invisible was to them without form, thus without quality; and an idea that is without form and quality is either dissipated or falls to nature, which is visible. After hearing these things, it was given to say to them that they do well to think of God under the human form; and that many from our earth think in like manner, especially when they think of the Lord; and that the ancients thought in no other manner. I then told them about Abraham, about Lot, about Gideon, and about Manoah and his wife, and what is related about them in our Word, namely, that they saw God under a human form, and that when they saw Him they acknowledged Him as the Creator of the universe, and called Him Jehovah, and this also from interior perception; but that at this day such interior perception has perished in the Christian world, and remains only with the simple who are in faith.

AC 10738. Before these things were said, they had believed that our company also was one of those which desired to confuse them about God by the idea of three; and therefore after hearing these words, they said that some have been sent by God (whom they then called the Lord) to teach them about Him; and that they are not willing to admit visitors who disturb them, especially by means of three Persons in the Godhead, because they know that God is one, consequently that the Divine is one, and not a unanimity of three--unless their visitors are willing to think of God as of an angel, in whom there is an inmost of life that is invisible, and from which he thinks and is wise; and an external of life that is visible under the human form, and from which he sees and acts; and also a proceeding of life which is a sphere of love and faith around him. For from the sphere of life proceeding from him, the quality of every spirit and angel in respect to his love and faith is perceived at a distance. And in regard to the Lord they said that the proceeding sphere of life from Him is the Divine Itself that fills the heavens and makes them, because it is from the very Being of the life of love and of faith.

[2] After hearing these words it was given to say that such an idea about what is trine and at the same time one, is in agreement with the angelic idea about the Lord, and that it is from the very doctrine of the Lord about Himself, for He teaches that the Father and He are one, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, that whoso seeth Him seeth the Father, and whoso believeth in Him believeth in the Father and knoweth Him, and also that the Paraclete, whom He calls the Spirit of truth and also the Holy Spirit, proceeds from Him and does not speak from Himself, but from Him, whereby is meant the Divine proceeding.

[3] And it was given to say, further, that an idea of what is trine and at the same time one is in agreement with the Being and Manifestation (Esse et Existere) of the life of the Lord when He was in the world. The Being of His life was the Divine Itself, for He was conceived of Jehovah; and the being of the life of everyone is that from whom he is conceived. The Manifestation of life from this Being is the Human in form. The being of the life of every man, which he has from his father, is called the soul; and the manifestation of life thence derived is called the body. The soul and the body constitute one man.

[4] The likeness between the two is like that between that which is in an endeavor and that which is in the consequent act; for an act is an endeavor acting, and thus these two are one. In man, endeavor is called "will;" and endeavor acting is called "action." The body is the instrumental by which the will, which is the principal, acts; and in acting the instrumental and the principal are together a one. And so it is with the soul and the body. The angels in heaven have such an idea about the soul and the body; and from this they know that the Lord made His Human Divine from the Divine in Himself, which was His soul from the Father. Moreover the faith everywhere received in the Christian world does not dissent from this, for it teaches, "As the body and soul are one man, so also in the Lord, God and Man are one Christ."

[5] As such was the union, or such the one, in the Lord, He therefore rose again not only as to the soul; but, differently from any man, as to the body which He glorified in the world He also instructed the disciples about this, saying, "Feel Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have."

[6] From this it is that the church acknowledges the omnipresence of His Human in the Sacrament of the Supper, which could not be acknowledged unless His Human also was Divine. These things were well understood by these spirits; for such things fall into the understanding of angelic spirits; and they said that the Lord alone has power in the heavens, and that the heavens are His. To this it was given to reply that the church also knows this from the mouth of the Lord Himself before He ascended into heaven, for He then said, "All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."

AC 10739. A continuation about the fifth earth in the starry heaven will be found at the end of the following chapter.

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