Heaven and its Wonders and Hell Part 1

Heaven and its Wonders and h.e.l.l.

by Emanuel Swedenborg.

1. The Lord, speaking in the presence of His disciples of the consummation of the age, which is the final period of the church,{1} says, near the end of what He foretells about its successive states in respect to love and faith:{2}

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound; and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end to end of the heavens (Matt. 24:29-31).

Those who understood these words according to the sense of the letter have no other belief than that during that latest period, which is called the final judgment, all these things are to come to pa.s.s just as they are described in the literal sense, that is, that the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky, that the sign of the Lord will appear in the sky, and He Himself will be seen in the clouds, attended by angels with trumpets; and furthermore, as is foretold else where, that the whole visible universe will be destroyed, and afterwards a new heaven with a new earth will come into being. Such is the opinion of most men in the church at the present day. But those who so believe are ignorant of the arcana that lie hid in every particular of the Word. For in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated of in the sense of the letter. And this is true not only of the meaning of groups of words, it is true of each particular word.{3} For the Word is written solely by correspondences,{4} to the end that there may be an internal sense in every least particular of it. What that sense is can be seen from all that has been said and shown about it in the Arcana Coelestia; also from quotations gathered from that work in the explanation of The White Horse spoken of in the Apocalypse. It is according to that sense that what the Lord says in the pa.s.sage quoted above respecting His coming in the clouds of heaven is to be understood. The "sun" there that is to be darkened signifies the Lord in respect to love;{5} the "moon" the Lord in respect to faith;{6} "stars" knowledges of good and truth, or of love and faith;{7} "the sign of the Son of man in heaven" the manifestation of Divine truth; "the tribes of the earth" that shall mourn, all things relating to truth and good or to faith and love;{8} "the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory"

His presence in the Word, and revelation,{9} "clouds" signifying the sense of the letter of the Word,{10} and "glory" the internal sense of the Word;{11} "the angels with a trumpet and great voice" signify heaven as a source of Divine truth.{12} All this makes clear that these words of the Lord mean that at the end of the church, when there is no longer any love, and consequently no faith, the Lord will open the internal meaning of the Word and reveal arcana of heaven.

The arcana revealed in the following pages relate to heaven and h.e.l.l, and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and h.e.l.l or about his life after death, although all these matters are set forth and described in the Word; and yet many of those born within the church refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial, which especially prevails with those who have much worldly wisdom, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in faith, it has been granted me to a.s.sociate with angels and to talk with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and what is in the h.e.l.ls, and this for thirteen years; so now from what I have seen and heard it has been granted me to describe these, in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated.

Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord.

[REFERENCES TO THE AUTHOR'S ARCANA COELESTIA.]

{Footnote 1} The consummation of the age is the final period of the church (n. 4535, 10622).

{Footnote 2} The Lord's predictions in Matthew (24 and 25), respecting the consummation of the age and His coming, and the consequent successive vastation of the church and the final judgment, are explained in the prefaces to chapters 26-40 of Genesis (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4424, 4635- 4638, 4661-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071).

{Footnote 3} Both in the wholes and in the particulars of the Word there is an internal or spiritual sense (n. 1143, 1984, 2135, 2333, 2395, 2495, 4442, 9048, 9063, 9086).

{Footnote 4} The Word is written solely by correspondences, and for this reason each thing and all things in it have a spiritual meaning (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2900, 9086).

{Footnote 5} In the Word the "sun" signifies the Lord in respect to love, and in consequence love to the Lord (n. 1529, 1837, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 7083, 10809).

{Footnote 6} In the Word the "moon" signifies the Lord in respect to faith, and in consequence faith in the Lord (n.

1529, 1530, 2495, 4060, 4696, 7083).

{Footnote 7} In the Word "stars" signify knowledges of good and truth (n. 2495, 2849,4697).

{Footnote 8} "Tribes" signify all truths and goods in the complex, thus all things of faith and love (n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335).

{Footnote 9} The coming of the Lord signifies His presence in the Word, and revelation (n 3900,4060).

{Footnote 10} In the Word clouds signify the Word in the letter or the sense of its letter (n. 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574).

{Footnote 11} In the Word "glory" signifies Divine truth as it is in heaven and as it is in the internal sense of the Word (n.

4809, 5922, 8267, 8427, 9429, 10574).

{Footnote 12} A "trumpet" or "horn" signifies Divine truth in heaven, and revealed from heaven (n. 8158, 8823, 8915); and "voice" has a like signification (n. 6771, 9926).

2. I. THE G.o.d OF HEAVEN IS THE LORD

First of all it must be known who the G.o.d of heaven is, since upon that all the other things depend. Throughout all heaven no other than the Lord alone is acknowledged as the G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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.

{Footnote 1} Christians were examined in the other life in regard to their idea of the one G.o.d and it was found that they held the idea of three G.o.ds (n. 2329, 5256, 10736, 10738, 10821). A Divine trinity in the Lord is acknowledged in heaven (n. 14, 15, 1729, 2005, 5256, 9303).

3. Those within the church who have denied the Lord and have acknowledged the Father only, and have confirmed themselves in that belief, are not in heaven; and as they are unable to receive any influx from heaven, where the Lord alone is wors.h.i.+ped, they gradually lose the ability to think what is true about any subject whatever; and finally they become as if dumb, or they talk stupidly, and ramble about with their arms dangling and swinging as if weak in the joints.

Again, those who, like the Socinians, have denied the Divinity of the Lord and have acknowledged His Humanity only, are likewise outside of heaven; they are brought forward a little towards the right and are let down into the deep, and are thus wholly separated from the rest that come from the Christian world. Finally, those who profess to believe in an invisible Divine, which they call the soul of the universe [Ens universi], from which all things originated, and who reject all belief in the Lord, find out that they believe in no G.o.d; since this invisible Divine is to them a property of nature in her first principles, which cannot be an object of faith and love, because it is not an object of thought.{1} Such have their lot among those called Naturalists. It is otherwise with those born outside the church, who are called the heathen; these will be treated of hereafter.

{Footnote 1} A Divine that cannot be perceived by any idea cannot be received by faith (n. 4733, 5110, 5663, 6982, 6996, 7004, 7211, 9356, 9359, 9972, 10067, 10267).

4. Infants, who form a third part of heaven, are all initiated into the acknowledgment and belief that the Lord is their Father, and afterwards that He is the Lord of all, thus the G.o.d of heaven and earth. That children grow up in heaven and are perfected by means of knowledges, even to angelic intelligence and wisdom, will be seen in the following pages.

5. Those who are of the church cannot doubt that the Lord is the G.o.d of heaven, for He Himself taught,

That all things of the Father are His (Matt. 11:27; John 16:15; 17:2).

And that He hath all power in heaven and on earth (Matt.

28:18).

He says "in heaven and on earth," because He that rules heaven rules the earth also, for the one depends upon the other.{1} "Ruling heaven and earth" means to receive from the Lord every good pertaining to love and every truth pertaining to faith, thus all intelligence and wisdom, and in consequence all happiness, in a word, eternal life.

This also the Lord taught when He said:

He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life (John 3:36).

Again:

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die (John 11:26, 26).

And again:

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

{Footnote 1} The entire heaven is the Lord's (n. 2751, 7086).

He has all power in the heavens and on the earths (n. 1607, 10089, 10827). As the Lord rules heaven He rules also all things that depend thereon, thus all things in the world (n.

2026, 2027, 4523, 4524). The Lord alone has power to remove the h.e.l.ls, to withhold from evil and hold in good, and thus to save (n. 10019).

6. There were certain spirits who while living in the world had professed to believe in the Father; but of the Lord they had the same idea as of any other man, and therefore did not believe Him to be the G.o.d of heaven. For this reason they were permitted to wander about and inquire wherever they wished whether there were any other heaven than the heaven of the Lord. They searched for several days, but nowhere found any. These were such as place the happiness of heaven in glory and dominion; and as they were unable to get what they desired, and were told that heaven does not consist in such things, they became indignant, and wished for a heaven where they could lord it over others and be eminent in glory like that in the world.

7. II. IT IS THE DIVINE OF THE LORD THAT MAKES HEAVEN.

The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they const.i.tute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them. And as the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, the angels are angels and are heaven in the measure in which they receive good and truth from the Lord.

8. Everyone in the heavens knows and believes and even perceives that he wills and does nothing of good from himself, and that he thinks and believes nothing of truth from himself, but only from the Divine, thus from the Lord; also that good from himself is not good, and truth from himself is not truth, because these have in them no life from the Divine. Moreover, the angels of the inmost heaven clearly perceive and feel the influx, and the more of it they receive the more they seem to themselves to be in heaven, because the more are they in love and faith and in the light of intelligence and wisdom, and in heavenly joy therefrom; and since all these go forth from the Divine of the Lord, and in these the angels have their heaven, it is clear that it is the Divine of the Lord, and not the angels from anything properly their own that makes heaven.{1} This is why heaven is called in the Word the "dwelling-place" of the Lord and "His throne," and those who are there are said to be in the Lord.{2} But in what manner the Divine goes forth from the Lord and fills heaven will be told in what follows.