I sometimes refer to Swedenborg in this blog. Many of you may not of heard of him, so I offer this brief description of him. His Biography is very unique and fascinating in history.
The mission
of Swedenborg’s life was to reveal the inner sense of the Word and the secrets
of heaven. He writes from a perspective that is unique in history. He proclaims
his source to be the wisdom of heaven, and that he was granted by the Lord to
communicate with the angels of heaven. Because of this, his history of mankind
and God (the divine human) is from a first hand experience of heaven and its
teachings - that is unique! He provides a cosmic view of the progress and
decline of mankind and religion from the beginning of time till the second
coming. His writing is intensely spiritual in that it reveals the essential
cause of things. He maintains a tone of authority and integrity, and is not
dogmatic; - he continually appeals to the reason of the reader. And he does so
because he knows people are meant to form their beliefs in freedom.
Swedenborg
didn’t just have an experience of the light; he entered the mansion (heaven)
and empirically tells of its wonders; he illucidates the principles of heaven
and the Word in an ordered series designed for gradual reception in our hearts
and minds. These principles are based on his innumerable encounters with
angels, spirits and demons over 30 years. He emphasizes that all of his
encounters with angels, spirits, or demons are under the auspices of the Lord’s
guidance. His books on theology and metaphysics come to more than thirty
volumes; and there is a seemless depth of coherency in all of his writing. The
writing is rigorous and dense, but as one gets to know it there is a sense of
wonder and passion, albeit a composed passion. In his writing there is not a
hint of literary vanity; he purely seeks to impart the wisdom of heaven and the
Word in the most efficient way he can. To that end he organized the material
with his own unique built-in reference system.
Here is a
quote from Swedenborg describing the situation at the time of the Lord’s
incarnation, and the cause of it:
At
the time of the Lord's first coming the hells had increased to such a height as
to fill the whole world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and
hell, and thus had not only thrown into disorder the heaven that is called the
lowest, but also had attacked the middle heaven, which they infested in a
thousand ways, and which would have gone to destruction if it had not been
upheld by the Lord. Such an uprising of the hells is meant by the tower built
in the land of Shinar, the head of which was to reach to heaven.
The
hells had increased to such a height because at the time when the Lord came
into the world the whole earth had completely alienated itself from God by
idolatries and magic; and the church which had existed among the children of
Israel and afterwards with the Jews, had been utterly destroyed by the
falsification and adulteration of the Word. All these, both Jews and Gentiles,
had after death streamed into the world of spirits, where at length their
number was so increased and multiplied that they could be driven out only by a
descent of God Himself and then only by the strength of His Divine arm. How
this was done has been described in the little work on the Last Judgment
(London, 1758). At the Lord's first coming this increase of the hells was the
work of idolaters, magicians, and falsifiers of the Word. This impending
damnation Jehovah God removed by means of His Human, thus redeeming angels and
men. From this it is clear that without the Lord's coming no one could have
been saved (TCR 121).
To truly
understand what he is saying here one needs to gain an understanding of the
nature and power of the Word. The Word provides conjunction between heaven and
earth and this understanding is essential to see the lengths the Lord went to
to be born on earth without causing harm to humnaity.
No comments:
Post a Comment