Emanuel Swedenborg - Heaven and its Wonders and Hell

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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell

From Things Heard and Seen

by Emanuel Swedenborg.

Translated by John Ager.

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 pass 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 passage 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 hell,
and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at
this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell 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 associate with angels and to talk
with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and
what is in the hells, 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 GOD OF HEAVEN IS THE LORD

First of all it must be known who the God of heaven is, since upon
that all the other things depend. Throughout all heaven no other than
the Lord alone is acknowledged as the God 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 God 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 God and it was found that they
held the idea of three Gods (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 worshiped, 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 God;
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 God 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 God
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
hells, 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
God 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 constitute
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.

{Footnote 1} The angels of heaven acknowledge all good to be
from the Lord, and nothing from themselves, and the Lord dwells
in them in His own and not in their own (n. 9338, 10125, 10151,
10157). Therefore in the Word by "angels" something of the Lord
is meant (n. 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 8192, 10528). Furthermore,
angels are called "gods" from the reception of the Divine from
the Lord (n. 4295, 4402, 7268, 7873, 8192, 8301). Again, all
good that is good, and all truth that is truth, consequently
all peace, love, charity, and faith, are from the Lord (n.
1614, 2016, 2751, 2882, 2883, 2891, 2892, 2904). Also all
wisdom and intelligence (n. 109, 112, 121, 124).

{Footnote 2} Those who are in heaven are said to be in the Lord
(n. 3637, 3638).

9. Angels from their wisdom go still further. They say that not only
everything good and true is from the Lord, but everything of life as
well. They confirm it by this, that nothing can spring from itself,
but only from something prior to itself; therefore all things spring
from a First, which they call the very Being [Esse] of the life of
all things. And in like manner all things continue to exist, for
continuous existence is a ceaseless springing forth, and whatever is
not continually held by means of intermediates in connection with the
First instantly disperses and is wholly dissipated. They say also
that there is but One Fountain of life, and that man's life is a
rivulet therefrom, which if it did not unceasingly continue from its
fountain would immediately flow away. [2] Again, they say that from
this One Fountain of life, which is the Lord, nothing goes forth
except Divine good and Divine truth, and that each one is affected by
these in accordance with his reception of them, those who receive
them in faith and life find heaven in them while those who reject
them or stifle them change them into hell; for they change good into
evil and truth into falsity, thus life into death. Again, that
everything of life is from the Lord they confirm by this: that all
things in the universe have relation to good and truth,-the life of
man's will, which is the life of his love, to good; and the life of
his understanding, which is the life of his faith, to truth; and
since everything good and true comes from above it follows that
everything of life must come from above. [3] This being the belief of
the angels they refuse all thanks for the good they do, and are
displeased and withdraw if any one attributes good to them. They
wonder how any one can believe that he is wise from himself or does
anything good from himself. Doing good for one's own sake they do not
call good, because it is done from self. But doing good for the sake
of good they call good from the Divine; and this they say is the good
that makes heaven, because this good is the Lord.{1}

{Footnote 1} Good from the Lord has the Lord inwardly in it,
but good from one's own has not (n. 1802, 3951, 8480).

10. Such spirits as have confirmed themselves during their life in
the world in the belief that the good they do and the truth they
believe is from themselves, or is appropriated to them as their own
(which is the belief of all who place merit in good actions and claim
righteousness to themselves) are not received into heaven. Angels
avoid them. They look upon them as stupid and as thieves; as stupid
because they continually have themselves in view and not the Divine;
and as thieves because they steal from the Lord what is His. These
are averse to the belief of heaven, that it is the Divine of the Lord
in the angels that makes heaven.

11. The Lord teaches that those that are in heaven and in the church
are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, when He says:

Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye,
except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much
fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4,5).

12. From all this it can now be seen that the Lord dwells in the
angels of heaven in what is His own, and thus that the Lord is the
all in all things of heaven; and this for the reason that good from
the Lord is the Lord in angels, for what is from the Lord is the
Lord; consequently heaven to the angels is good from the Lord, and
not anything of their own.

13. III. IN HEAVEN THE DIVINE OF THE LORD IS LOVE TO HIM AND CHARITY
TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOR.

The Divine that goes forth from the Lord is called in heaven Divine
truth, for a reason that will presently appear. This Divine truth
flows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine love. The Divine love
and the Divine truth therefrom are related to each other as the fire
of the sun and the light therefrom in the world, love resembling the
fire of the sun and truth therefrom light from the sun. Moreover, by
correspondence fire signifies love, and light truth going forth from
love.{1} From this it is clear what the Divine truth that goes forth
from the Lord's Divine love is-that in its essence it is Divine good
joined to Divine truth, and being so conjoined it vivifies all things
of heaven; just as in the world when the sun's heat is joined to
light it makes all things of the earth fruitful, which takes place in
spring and summer. It is otherwise when the heat is not joined with
the light, that is, when the light is cold; then all things become
torpid and lie dead. With the angels this Divine good, which is
compared to heat, is the good of love; and Divine truth, which is
compared to light, is that through which and out of which good of
love comes.

{Footnote 1} In the Word "fire" signifies heavenly love and
infernal love (n. 934, 4906, 5215). "Holy and heavenly fire"
signifies Divine love, and every affection that belongs to that
love (n. 934, 6314, 6832). "Light" from fire signifies truth
going forth from good of love; and light in heaven signifies
Divine truth (n. 3195, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413,
4415, 9548, 9684).

14. The Divine in heaven which makes heaven is love, because love is
spiritual conjunction. It conjoins angels to the Lord and conjoins
them to one another, so conjoining them that in the Lord's sight they
are all as one. Moreover, love is the very being [esse] of everyone's
life; consequently from love both angels and men have life. Everyone
who reflects can know that the inmost vitality of man is from love,
since he grows warm from the presence of love and cold from its
absence, and when deprived of it he dies.{1} But it is to be
remembered that the quality of his love is what determines the
quality of each one's life.

{Footnote 1} Love is the fire of life, and life itself is
actually therefrom (n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314).

15. In heaven there are two distinct loves, love to the Lord and love
towards the neighbor, in the inmost or third heaven love to the Lord,
in the second or middle heaven love towards the neighbor. They both
go forth from the Lord, and they both make heaven. How these two
loves are distinct and how they are conjoined is seen in heaven in
clear light, but in the world only obscurely. In heaven loving the
Lord does not mean loving Him in respect to His person, but it means
loving the good that is from Him; and to love good is to will and do
good from love; and to love the neighbor does not mean loving a
companion in respect to his person, but loving the truth that is from
the Word; and to love truth is to will and do it. This makes clear
that these two loves are distinct as good and truth are distinct, and
that they are conjoined as good is conjoined with truth.{1} But this
can scarcely be comprehended by men unless it is known what love is,
what good is, and what the neighbor is.{2}

{Footnote 1} To love the Lord and the neighbor is to live
according to the Lord's commandments (n. 10143, 10153, 10310,
10578, 10648).

{Footnote 2} To love the neighbor is not to love the person,
but to love that in him from which he is what he is, that is,
his truth and good (n. 5028. 10336). Those who love the person,
and not that in him from which he is what he is, love evil and
good alike (n. 3820). Charity is willing truths and being
affected by truths for the sake of truths (n. 3876, 3877).
Charity towards the neighbor is doing what is good, just, and
right, in every work and in every function (n. 8120-8122).

16. I have repeatedly talked with angels about this matter. They were
astonished, they said, that men of the church do not know that to
love the Lord and to love the neighbor is to love what is good and
true, and to do this from the will, when they ought to know that one
evinces love by willing and doing what another wishes, and it is this
that brings reciprocal love and conjunction, and not loving another
without doing what he wishes, which in itself is not loving; also
that men should know that the good that goes forth from the Lord is a
likeness of Him, since He is in it; and that those who make good and
truth to belong to their life by willing them and doing them become
likenesses of the Lord and are conjoined to Him. Willing is loving to
do. That this is so the Lord teaches in the Word, saying,

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that
loveth Me; and I will love him and will make My abode with
him (John 14:21, 23).

And again:

If ye do My commandments ye shall abide in My love (John
15:10).

17. All experience in heaven attests that the Divine that goes forth
from the Lord and that affects angels and makes heaven is love; for
all who are in heaven are forms of love and charity, and appear in
ineffable beauty, with love shining forth from their faces, and from
their speech and from every particular of their life.{1} Moreover,
there are spiritual spheres of life emanating from and surrounding
every angel and every spirit, by which their quality in respect to
the affections of their love is known, sometimes at a great distance.
For with everyone these spheres flow forth from the life of his
affection and consequent thought, or from the life of his love and
consequent faith. The spheres that go forth from angels are so full
of love as to affect the inmosts of life of those who are with them.
They have repeatedly been perceived by me and have thus affected
me.{2} That it is love from which angels have their life is further
evident from the fact that in the other life everyone turns himself
in accordance with his love-those who are in love to the Lord and in
love towards the neighbor turning themselves always to the Lord,
while those who are in love of self turn themselves always away from
the Lord. This is so, however their bodies may turn, since with those
in the other life spaces conform to the states of their interiors,
likewise quarters, which are not constant as they are in this world,
but are determined in accordance with the direction of their faces.
And yet it is not the angels that turn themselves to the Lord; but
the Lord turns to Himself those that love to do the things that are
from Him.{3} But more on this subject hereafter, where the quarters
in the other life are treated of.

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