Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence Part 25

[10] This does not take place, however, with many in the world because they love the first level of their life, called natural, and do not purpose to withdraw from it and become spiritual. The natural degree of life, in itself regarded, loves only self and the world, for it keeps close to the bodily senses, which are to the fore, also, in the world.

But the spiritual degree of life regarded in itself loves the Lord and heaven, and self and the world, too, but G.o.d and heaven as higher, paramount and controlling, and self and the world as lower, instrumental and subservient.

[11] Fourth: _Divine love cannot but will this, and divine wisdom cannot but provide it._ It was fully shown in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ that the divine essence is divine love and wisdom, and it was also demonstrated there (nn. 358-370) that in every human embryo the Lord forms two receptacles, one of the divine love and the other of the divine wisdom, the former for man's future will and the latter for his future understanding, and that in this way the Lord has endowed each human being with the faculty of willing good and the faculty of understanding truth.

[12] Inasmuch as man is endowed from birth with these two faculties by the Lord, and the Lord then is in them as in what is His own with man, it is manifest that His divine love cannot but will that man should come into heaven and His divine wisdom cannot but provide for this. But since it is of the Lord's divine love that man should feel heavenly blessedness in himself as his own, and this cannot be unless man is kept in the appearance that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself, the Lord can therefore lead man only according to the laws of His divine providence.

325. (ii) _Of divine providence, therefore, every man can be saved, and those are saved who acknowledge G.o.d and live rightly._ It is plain from what has been demonstrated above that every human being can be saved.

Some persons suppose that the Lord's church is to be found only in Christendom, because only there is the Lord known and the Word possessed.

Still many believe that the Lord's church is general, that is, extends and is scattered throughout the world, existing thus with those who do not know the Lord or possess the Word. They say that those men are not in fault and are without means to overcome their ignorance. They believe that it is contrary to G.o.d's love and mercy that any should be born for h.e.l.l who are equally human beings.

[2] Inasmuch as many Christians, if not all, have faith that the church is common to many--it is in fact called a communion--there must be some very widely shared things of the church that enter all religions and that const.i.tute this communion. These most widely shared factors are acknowledgment of G.o.d and good of life, as will be seen in this order:

1. Acknowledgment of G.o.d effects a conjunction of G.o.d and man; denial of G.o.d causes disjunction.

2. Each one acknowledges G.o.d and is conjoined with Him in accord with the goodness of his life.

3. Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils because they are contrary to religion, thus to G.o.d.

4. These are factors common to all religions, and by them anyone can be saved.

326. To clarify and demonstrate these propositions one by one. First: _Acknowledgment of G.o.d brings conjunction of G.o.d and man; denial of G.o.d results in disjunction._ Some may think that those who do not acknowledge G.o.d can be saved equally with those who do, if they lead a moral life.

They ask, "What does acknowledgment accomplish? Is it not merely a thought? Can I not 'acknowledge G.o.d when I learn for certain that G.o.d there is? I have heard of Him but not seen Him. Let me see Him and I will believe." Such is the language of many who deny G.o.d when they have an opportunity to argue with one who acknowledges G.o.d. But that an acknowledgment of G.o.d conjoins and denial disjoins will be clarified by some things made known to me in the spiritual world. In that world when anyone thinks of another and desires to speak with him, the other is at once present. The explanation is that there is no distance in the spiritual world such as there is in the natural, but only an appearance of distance.

[2] A second phenomenon: as thought from some acquaintance with another causes his presence, love from affection for another causes conjunction with him. So spirits move about, converse as friends, dwell together in one house or in one community, meet often, and render one another services. The opposite happens, also; one who does not love another and still more one who hates another does not see or encounter him; the distance between them is according to the degree in which love is wanting or hatred is present. Indeed, one who is present and recalls his hatred, vanishes.

[3] From these few particulars it may be evident whence presence and conjunction come in the spiritual world. Presence comes with the recollection of another with a desire to see him, and conjunction comes of an affection which springs from love. This is true also of all things in the human mind. There are countless things in the mind, and its least parts are a.s.sociated and conjoined in accord with affections or as one thing attracts another.

[4] This is spiritual conjunction and it is the same in things large and things small. It has its origin in the conjunction of the Lord with the spiritual world and the natural world in general and in detail. It is manifest from this that in the measure in which one knows the Lord and thinks of Him from knowledge of Him, in that measure the Lord is present, and in the measure in which one acknowledges Him from an affection of love, in that measure the Lord is united with him. On the other hand, in the measure of one's ignorance of the Lord, in that measure He is absent; and so far as one denies Him, so far is He separated from one.

[5] The result of conjunction is that the Lord turns man's face towards Himself and thereupon leads him; the disjunction results in h.e.l.l's turning man's face to it and it leads him. Therefore all the angels of heaven turn their faces towards the Lord as the Sun, and all the spirits of h.e.l.l avert their faces from the Lord. It is plain from this what the acknowledgment of G.o.d and the denial of G.o.d each accomplish. Those who deny G.o.d in the world deny Him after death also; they have become organized as described above (n. 319); the organization induced in the world remains to eternity.

[6] Second: _Everyone acknowledges G.o.d and is conjoined with Him according to the goodness of his life._ All who know something of religion can know G.o.d; from information or from the memory they can also speak about G.o.d, and some may also think about Him from the understanding. But this only brings about presence if a man does not live rightly, for despite it all he can turn away from G.o.d and towards h.e.l.l, and this takes place if he lives wickedly. Only those who live rightly can acknowledge G.o.d with the heart, and these the Lord turns away from h.e.l.l and towards Himself according to the goodness of their life. For these alone love G.o.d; for in doing what comes from Him they love what is divine. The precepts of His law are divine things from Him. They are G.o.d because He is His own proceeding divine. As this is to love G.o.d, the Lord says:

He who keeps my commandments is he who loves me . . . But he who does not keep my commandments does not love me (Jn 14: 21, 24).

[7] Here is the reason why there are two tables of the Decalog, one having reference to G.o.d and the other to man. G.o.d works unceasingly that man may receive what is in His table, but if man does not do what he is bidden in his own table he does not receive with acknowledgment of heart what is in G.o.d's table, and if he does not receive this he is not conjoined. The two tables were joined, therefore, to be one and are called the tables of the covenant; covenant means conjunction. One acknowledges G.o.d and is conjoined to Him in accord with the goodness of his life because this good is like the good in the Lord and consequently comes from the Lord. So when man is in the good of life there is conjunction. The contrary takes place with evil of life; it rejects the Lord.

[8] Third: _Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils because they are contrary to religion, thus to G.o.d._ That this is good of life or living rightly is fully shown in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,_ from beginning to end. To this I will only add that if you do good aplenty, build churches for instance, adorn them and fill them with offerings, spend money lavishly on hospitals and hostels, give alms daily, aid widows and orphans, diligently observe the sanct.i.ties of wors.h.i.+p, indeed think and speak and preach about them as from the heart, and yet do not shun evils as sins against G.o.d, all those good deeds are not goodness. They are either hypocritical or done for merit, for evil is still deep in them. Everyone's life pervades all that he does. Goods become good only by the removal of evil from them. Plainly, then, shunning evils because they are contrary to religion and thus to G.o.d is living rightly.

[9] Fourth: _These are factors common to all religions, and anyone can be saved by them._ To acknowledge G.o.d, and to refrain from evil because it is contrary to G.o.d, are the two acts that make religion to be religion.

If one is lacking, it cannot be called religion, for to acknowledge G.o.d and to do evil is a contradiction; so it is, too, to do good and yet not acknowledge G.o.d; one is impossible apart from the other. The Lord has provided that there should be some religion almost everywhere and that these two elements should be in it, and has also provided that everyone who acknowledges G.o.d and refrains from doing evil because it is against G.o.d shall have a place in heaven. For heaven as a whole is like one man whose life or soul is the Lord. In that heavenly man are all things to be found in a natural man with the difference which obtains between the heavenly and the natural.

[10] It is a matter of common knowledge that in the human being there are not only forms organized of blood vessels and nerve fibres, but also skins, membranes, tendons, cartilages, bones, nails and teeth. These have a smaller measure of life than those organized forms, which they serve as ligaments, coverings or supports. For all these ent.i.ties to be in the heavenly humanity, which is heaven, it cannot be made up of human beings all of one religion, but of men of many religions. Therefore all who make these two universals of the church part of their lives have a place in this heavenly man, that is, heaven, and enjoy happiness each in his measure. More on the subject may be seen above (n. 254).

[11] That these two are primary in all religion is evident from the fact that they are the two which the Decalog teaches. The Decalog was the first of the Word, promulgated by Jehovah from Mount Sinai by a living voice, and also inscribed on two tables of stone by the finger of G.o.d.

Then, placed in the ark, the Decalog was called Jehovah, and it made the holy of holies in the tabernacle and the shrine in the temple of Jerusalem; all things in each were holy only on account of it. Much more about the Decalog in the ark is to be had from the Word, which is cited in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61). To that I will add this. From the Word we know that the ark with the two tables in it on which the Decalog was written was captured by the Philistines and placed in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod; that Dagon fell to the ground before it, and afterward his head, together with the palms of the hands, torn from his body, lay on the temple threshold; that the people of Ashdod and Ekron to the number of many thousands were smitten with hemorrhoids and their land was ravaged by mice; that on the advice of the chiefs of their nation, the Philistines made five golden hemorrhoids, five golden mice and a new cart, and on this placed the ark with the golden hemorrhoids and mice beside it; with two cows that lowed before the cart along the way, they sent the ark back to the children of Israel and by them cows and cart were offered in sacrifice (1 Sa 5 and 6).

[12] To state now what all this signified: the Philistines signified those who are in faith separated from charity; Dagon signified that religiosity; the hemorrhoids by which they were smitten signified natural loves which when severed from spiritual love are unclean, and the mice signified the devastation of the church by falsification of truth. The new cart on which the Philistines sent back the ark signified a new but still natural doctrine (chariot in the Word signifies doctrine from spiritual truths), and the cows signified good natural affections.

Hemorrhoids of gold signified natural loves purified and made good, and the golden mice signified an end to the devastation of the church by means of good, for in the Word gold signifies good. The lowing of the kine on the way signified the difficult conversion of the l.u.s.ts of evil of the natural man into good affections. That cows and cart were offered up as a burnt offering signified that so the Lord was propitiated.

[13] This is how what is told historically is understood spiritually.

Gather all into a single conception and make the application. That those who are in faith severed from charity are represented by the Philistines, see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith_ (nn. 49-54), and that the ark was the most holy thing of the church because of the Decalog enclosed in it, see _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61).

327. (iii) _Man himself is in fault if he is not saved._ As soon as he hears it any rational man acknowledges the truth that evil cannot issue from good nor good from evil, for they are opposites; consequently only good comes of good and only evil of evil. When this truth is acknowledged this also is: that good can be turned into evil not by a good but by an evil recipient; for any form changes into its own nature what flows into it (see above, n. 292). Inasmuch as the Lord is good in its very essence or good itself, plainly evil cannot issue from Him or be produced by Him, but good can be turned into evil by a recipient subject whose form is a form of evil. Such a subject is man as to his proprium. This constantly receives good from the Lord and constantly turns it into the nature of its own form, which is one of evil. It follows that man is in fault if he is not saved. Evil is indeed from h.e.l.l but as man receives it from h.e.l.l as his and appropriates it to himself, it is the same whether one says that evil is from man or from h.e.l.l. But whence there is an appropriation of evil until finally religion perishes will be told in this order:

1. Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time.

2. It does so through the inversion of G.o.d's image in man.

3. This takes place through a continual increase of hereditary evil over the generations.

4. Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved.

5. It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place of the former devastated church.

328. These points are to be demonstrated in the order given. First: _Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time._ There have been several churches on this earth, one after another, for wherever mankind is, a church is. For, as was shown above, heaven, which is the goal of creation, is from mankind, and no one can enter heaven unless he is in the two universal marks of the church which, as was shown just above (n. 326), are the acknowledgment of G.o.d and living aright. It follows that there have been churches on this earth from the most ancient times to the present. These churches are described in the Word, but not historically except the Israelitish and Jewish church. There were churches before it which are only described in the Word under the names of nations and persons and in a few items about them.

[2] The first, the Most Ancient Church, is described under the names of Adam and his wife Eve. The next church, to be called the Ancient Church, is described by Noah, his three sons and their posterity. This church was widespread and extended over many of the kingdoms of Asia: the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan, Syria, a.s.syria and Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia, Tyre and Sidon. These had the Ancient Word _(Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 101-103).

That this church existed in those kingdoms is evident from various things recorded about them in the prophetical parts of the Word. This church was markedly altered by Eber, from whom arose the Hebrew church, in which wors.h.i.+p by sacrifices was first inst.i.tuted. From the Hebrew church the Israelitish and Jewish church was born and solemnly established for the sake of the Word which was composed in it.

[3] These four churches are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, the head of which was of pure gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bra.s.s, and the legs and feet of iron and clay (Da 2:32, 33). Nor is anything else meant by the golden, silver, copper and iron ages mentioned by ancient writers. Needless to say, the Christian church succeeded the Jewish. It can be seen from the Word that all these churches declined in the course of time, eventually coming to an end, called their consummation.

[4] The consummation of the Most Ancient Church, brought about by the eating of the tree of knowledge, meaning by the pride of one's own intelligence, is depicted by the Flood. The consummation of the Ancient Church is depicted in the various devastations of nations mentioned in the historical as well as the prophetical Word and especially by the expulsion of the nations from the land of Canaan by the children of Israel. The consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish church is understood by the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem and by the carrying away of the people of Israel into permanent captivity and of the Jewish nation to Babylon, and finally by the second destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem at the same time, and by the dispersion of that nation. This consummation is foretold in many places in the Prophets and in Daniel 9:24-27. The gradual devastation of the Christian church even to its end is pictured by the Lord in Matthew (24), Mark (13) and Luke (21), but the end itself in the Apocalypse. Hence it may be manifest that in the course of time a church declines and comes to an end; so does a religion.

[5] Second: _Every religion declines and comes to an end through the inversion of G.o.d's image in man._ It is known that the human being was created in the image and after the likeness of G.o.d (Ge 1:26), but let us say what the image and the likeness of G.o.d are. G.o.d alone is love and wisdom; man was created to be a receptacle of both love and wisdom, his will to be a receptacle of divine love and his understanding a receptacle of the divine wisdom. These two receptacles, it was shown above, are in man from creation, const.i.tute him, and are formed in everyone in the womb. Man's being an image of G.o.d thus means that he is a recipient of the divine wisdom, and his being a likeness of G.o.d means that he is a recipient of the divine love. Therefore the receptacle called the understanding is an image of G.o.d, and the receptacle called the will is a likeness of G.o.d. Since, then, man was created and formed to be a receptacle, it follows that he was created and formed that his will might receive love from G.o.d and his understanding wisdom from G.o.d. He receives these when he acknowledges G.o.d and lives according to His precepts, receiving them in lesser or larger measure as by religion he has some knowledge of G.o.d and of His precepts, consequently according to his knowledge of truths. For truths teach what G.o.d is and how He is to be acknowledged, also what His precepts are and how man is to live according to them.

[6] The image and likeness of G.o.d have not been destroyed in man, but seem to have been; they remain inherent in his two faculties called liberty and rationality, of which we have treated above at many places.

They seem to have been destroyed when man made the receptacle of divine love, namely, his will, a receptacle of self-love, and the receptacle of divine wisdom, namely, his understanding, a receptacle of his own intelligence. Doing this, he inverted the image and likeness of G.o.d and turned these receptacles away from G.o.d and towards himself. Consequently they have become closed above and open below, or closed in front and open behind, though by creation they were open in front and closed behind.

When they have been opened and closed contrariwise, the receptacle of love, the will, receives influx from h.e.l.l or from one's proprium; so does the receptacle of wisdom, the understanding. Hence wors.h.i.+p of men arose in the churches instead of the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, and wors.h.i.+p by doctrines of falsity instead of wors.h.i.+p by doctrines of truth, the latter arising from man's own intelligence, and the former from love of self. Thence it is evident that religion falls away in the course of time and is ended by the inversion of G.o.d's image in man.

[7] Third: _This takes place as a result of a continual increase of hereditary evil over the generations._ It was said and explained above that hereditary evil does not come from Adam and his wife Eve by their having eaten of the tree of knowledge, but is derived and transmitted successively from parents to offspring. Thus it grows by continual increase from generation to generation. When evil increases so among many, it spreads to many more, for in all evil there is a l.u.s.t to lead astray, in some burning with anger against goodness--hence a contagion of evil. When the contagion reaches leaders, rulers and the prominent in the church, religion has become perverted, and the means of restoring it to health, namely truths, become corrupted by falsifications. As a result there is a gradual devastation of good and desolation of truth in the church on to its end.

[8] Fourth: _Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved._ He provides that there shall be religion everywhere and in it the two essentials for salvation, acknowledgment of G.o.d and ceasing from evil because it is contrary to G.o.d. Other things, which pertain to the understanding and hence to the thinking, called matters of faith, are provided everyone in accord with his life, for they are accessory to life and if they have been given precedence, do not become living until they are subsidiary. It is also provided that those who have lived rightly and acknowledged G.o.d are instructed by angels after death. Then those who were in the two essentials of religion while in the world accept such truths of the church as are in the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as G.o.d of heaven and of the church. This last they receive more readily than do Christians who have brought with them from the world an idea of the Lord's human nature parted from His divine. It is also provided by the Lord that all are saved who die as infants, no matter where they have been born.

[9] Furthermore, every person is given the opportunity after death of amending his life if possible. All are instructed and led by the Lord by means of angels. Knowing now that they live after death and that heaven and h.e.l.l exist, they at first receive truths. But those who did not acknowledge G.o.d and shun evils as sins when in the world soon show a distaste for truths and draw back, and those who acknowledged truths with the lips but not with the heart are like the foolish virgins who had lamps but no oil and begged oil of others, also went off and bought some, but still were not admitted to the wedding. "Lamps" signify truths of faith and "oil" signifies the good of charity. It may be evident then that divine providence sees to it that everyone can be saved and that man is himself in fault if he is not saved.

[10] Fifth: _It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place of a former devastated church._ It has been so from the most ancient days that on the devastation of a church a new one followed. The Ancient Church succeeded the Most Ancient; the Israelitish or Jewish Church followed the Ancient; after this came the Christian Church. And this, it is foretold in the Apocalypse, will be followed by a new church, signified in that book by the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. The reason why a new church is provided by the Lord to follow in place of a former devastated church may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn. 104-113).

329. (iv) _Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to h.e.l.l._ In the work _Heaven and h.e.l.l_ (London, 1758) we showed at nn. 545-550 that the Lord casts no one into h.e.l.l; the spirit himself does this. So it happens with every evil and impious person after death and also while he is in the world, with the difference that while he is in the world he can be reformed and can embrace and avail himself of the means of salvation, but not after departure from the world. The means of salvation are summed up in these two: that evils are to be shunned because they are contrary to the divine laws in the Decalog and that it be acknowledged that G.o.d exists. Everyone can do both if he does not love evils. For the Lord is constantly flowing into his will with power for shunning evils and into his understanding with power to think that G.o.d there is. But no one can do the one without doing the other; the two are joined together like the two tables of the Decalog, one relating to G.o.d and the other to man. In accordance with what is in His table the Lord enlightens and empowers everyone, but man receives power and enlightenment so far as he does what he is bidden in his table. Until then the two tables appear to be laid face to face and to be sealed, but as man acts on the biddings in his table they are unsealed and opened out.

[2] Today is not the Decalog like a small, closed book or doc.u.ment, opened only in the hands of children and the young? Tell someone farther along in years, "Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalog"

and who gives heed? He may give heed if you say, "Do not do this because it is contrary to divine laws," and yet the precepts of the Decalog are the divine laws themselves. Experiment was made with a number in the spiritual world, who at mention of the Decalog or Catechism rejected it with contempt. This is because in the second table, which is man's, the Decalog teaches that evils are to be shunned, and one who does not do so, whether from impiety or from the religious tenet that deeds effect nothing, only faith does, hears mention of the Decalog or Catechism with disdain, as though it was a child's book he heard mentioned, no longer of use to adults.

[3] These things have been said in order that it may be known that a knowledge of the means by which one can be saved is not lacking to anyone, nor power if he wants to be saved. It follows that all are predestined to heaven and no one to h.e.l.l. Since, however, a belief in a predestination not to salvation but to d.a.m.nation has prevailed with some, and this belief is damaging and cannot be broken up unless one's reason sees the insanity and cruelty in it, it is to be dealt with in this order:

1. Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infiniteness.

2. Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and its infiniteness.

3. That only those born in the church are saved is an insane heresy.

4. That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a cruel heresy.

330. That it may be apparent how damaging the belief is in predestination as this is commonly understood, these four arguments are to be taken up and confirmed. First: _Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infiniteness._ In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ we demonstrated that Jehovah or the Lord is divine love, is infinite, and is the esse of all life; also that the human being was created in G.o.d's image after G.o.d's likeness. As everyone is formed in the womb by the Lord into that image and after that likeness, as was also shown, the Lord is the heavenly Father of all human beings and they are His spiritual children. So Jehovah or the Lord is called in the Word, and so human beings are. Therefore He says:

Do not call your father on earth your father, for One is your Father, who is in the heavens (Mt 23:9).

This means that He alone is the Father with reference to the life in us, and the earthly father is father of the covering on life, which is the body. In heaven, therefore, no one but the Lord is called Father. And from many pa.s.sages in the Word it is clear that those who do not pervert that life are said to be His sons and to be born from Him.