Readings
Editor's Note: In the following quotations Swedenborg is talking about himself.
“The human race was so created by the Lord as to be able to be both in the world and in heaven, the outer person in the world and the inner one in heaven, consequently to be able to speak with spirits and angels as well as with fellow human beings. This was so that heaven would be united with the world, and the world with heaven. This has also, by the mercy of the Lord, taken place with me, and indeed in such a way that when I was mixing with people on earth, I did not differ in the least from myself as I had been before, nor could anyone tell me from an [ordinary] weak human being” (Spiritual Experiences 722)
“It is to be held in general, that all things, which I have written in this book, are written, wholly from living experience from conversation with spirits and angels, from thought, like tacit speech, communicated (to me).” (Spiritual Experiences 2894)
“The Lord in His divine mercy has given me the privilege of experiencing the next world in spirit while bodily present in this world (since a human being is a spirit clothed with a body). There I have spoken with souls recently revived after death, and in fact with almost everyone I knew during physical life who had since died. Every day now for several years I have also talked with spirits and angels and seen astounding sights that it has never occurred to anyone to imagine. No illusion of any kind was involved. Many people say that if someone comes to them from the other life, they will believe, so we shall see now whether they can be persuaded despite their hard hearts.” (Secrets of Heaven Preface to volume 2)
“Church people these days know practically nothing about heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there are descriptions of everything available to them in the Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever come back to tell us about it. To prevent this negative attitude – especially prevalent among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly wisdom – from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been enabled to see what is in heaven and in hell, a process that has been going on for thirteen years. Now I am being allowed therefore to describe what I have heard and seen, in the hopes of shedding light where there is ignorance, and of dispelling skepticism. The reason this kind of direct revelation is taking place today is that this is what the Coming of the Lord means.” (Heaven and Hell 1)
“In order to remove all doubt as to such being the character of the Word, the Lord has revealed to me the Word’s internal sense. In its essence this sense is spiritual, and in relation to the external sense, which is natural, is as soul is to body. This sense is the spirit which gives life to the letter; it can therefore bear witness to the divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the natural person, if he is willing to be convinced.” (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 4)
“I have been talking with spirits and angels now for many years, and no spirit has dared, and no angel has wanted, to tell me anything, let alone teach me, about things in the Word or any aspect of theology based on the Word. Only the Lord has taught me, the Lord who was revealed to me and who since then has been and is constantly before my eyes as the sun in which He dwells, just as He is for angels. He has enlightened me.” (Divine Providence 135)
“In your kind letter I was asked how I came into contact with angels and spirits, and whether this gift can be passed on from one person to another. Please accept the following reply from me: Our Lord and Savior had foretold both in the Gospels and in the book of Revelation that He would come into the world again and establish a New Church; and because He cannot now come into the world in person, it was necessary for Him to do this by means of a man who could not only grasp the doctrines of this Church with his understanding but also publish them in print. And because the Lord prepared me from childhood for this, therefore He showed Himself in person before me and set me on this task. This took place in the year 1743; and after this He opened the sight of my spirit for me, and thus introduced me into the spiritual world, and granted me to see the heavens and the wonders there, as well as the hells, and also to speak with angels and spirits; all this now for 27 consecutive years. I swear to the truth of this. It is only for the sake of the New Church mentioned above that this has been done with me. The gift of conversing with angels, as I have with them, cannot be passed on from one person to another. It does happen occasionally that a spirit comes in and babbles out some word or other to a man, but still it is not granted to speak with him face to face. It is also extremely dangerous, since the spirit enters into the affection belonging to a man’s self–love, which does not accord with the affection belonging to heavenly love.” (Letter to Landgrave, June 18, 1771)
“The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
“That which constitutes heaven with a person also constitutes the church; for as love and faith constitute heaven, so they also constitute the church.” (The New Jerusalem 241)
“Those who are out of the church and acknowledge one God, and live according to their religious principle, and in some charity towards the neighbor, are in communion with those who are of the church; for no one who believes in God and lives well, is condemned. Hence it is evident, that the church of the Lord is in the whole world, although specifically, where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is.” (The New Jerusalem 244)
“[The church] is the church because the people in it live by the Word, or by teachings based on the Word, and because they take theology as a rule for their lives. People who do not do so are not part of the church but rather stand outside it... Be aware that everyone who lives a life devoted to the good inspired by charity and by faith is an individual church and an individual kingdom of the Lord. Such people are also called God’s Temple and God’s House. People who are individual churches, no matter how widely scattered they are, go to make up the church as a whole.” (Secrets of Heaven 6637:2)
“Only one thing will drive the devil and his crew away from the door, and that is love to the Lord and towards the neighbor.” (Secrets of Heaven 364)
“The Lord’s heaven in our physical world is called the church, and an angel of this heaven is a church member who is united to the Lord. After leaving this world, people like this become angels of the spiritual heaven; so we can see that the sort of thing I have been saying about the angelic heaven applies also to the human heaven called the church.” (Divine Providence 30)
“The communion known as a church is composed of as many people as have the church in them; and the church enters into people when they are being regenerated... As people advance into early adulthood there are many ways in which they are prepared for the church and brought into it; but it is acts of repentance which really bring this about in them. By acts of repentance are meant all that prevent them from willing and so from doing the evil actions which are sins against God.” (True Christianity 510)
“As everyone knows, the church depends on its body of teaching and its body of teaching is based on the Word. Nevertheless, it is not the body of teaching itself but its integrity and purity, and therefore an understanding of the Word, that forms the church. The church in miniature that is in us as individuals is also formed and established not by a body of teaching but by our faith and by our living our faith. Likewise, what forms and establishes the church in miniature in any of us is not the Word; it is the faith based on true perceptions and the life based on good actions that we individually draw from the Word and apply to ourselves. The Word is like a mine that has gold and silver deep down in great abundance; it is like a mine where the farther in we go, the more precious are the types of stone we find. Our understanding of the Word is what gives us access to these "mines."” (True Christianity 245)