പുതിയ ക്രിസ്ത്യൻ ബൈബിൾ പഠനം

വ്യാഖ്യാനം

 

Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

സ്വീഡൻബർഗിന്റെ കൃതികളിൽ നിന്ന്

 

Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #23

ഈ ഭാഗം പഠിക്കുക

  
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23. The idolatries of the nations in olden times drew their origin from a knowledge of correspondences, and this because everything appearing on the earth has a correspondence, thus not only trees, but also cattle and birds of every kind, as well as fish, and everything else. People of old who possessed a knowledge of correspondences made themselves images that corresponded to things having to do with heaven, and they delighted in them, because they symbolized such things as have to do to with heaven and consequently the church. Therefore they placed these images not only in their temples, but also in their homes, not as objects to be worshiped, but to remind them of the heavenly things they symbolized.

Thus in Egypt and elsewhere there were images of calves, oxen, and serpents, and of boys, older men, and maidens, because calves and oxen symbolized the affections and abilities of the natural self; serpents, the prudence of the sensual self; boys, innocence and charity; older men, wisdom; and maidens, affections for truth, and so on.

When a knowledge of correspondences was obliterated, the people’s posterity began to worship as holy, and finally as deities, the images and likenesses set up by their ancestors, because they found them in and around temples.

[2] The case was the same among other nations, such as with Dagon among the Philistines at Ashdod, mentioned in 1 Samuel 5:1-12. Its upper part had the likeness of a man, its lower part the likeness of a fish. This image was contrived because a man symbolizes intelligence, and a fish knowledge, which form a unit.

It was for this reason, too, that people of old worshiped in gardens and groves, in accordance with the trees there, and also on mountains and hills. For gardens and groves symbolize wisdom and understanding, and each tree some aspect of these. For example, an olive tree symbolizes the goodness of love; a vine, truth springing from that goodness; a cedar, rational goodness and truth; while a mountain symbolizes the highest heaven, and a hill a heaven below it.

[3] A knowledge of correspondences remained among many eastern peoples to the time of the Lord’s advent, and this can be seen from the wise men from the east who came to the Lord when He was born. That is why a star went before them, and why they brought with them gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11). For the star that went before them symbolized a perception from heaven; gold, celestial goodness; frankincense, spiritual goodness; and myrrh, natural goodness. And all worship springs from these three.

[4] But still no knowledge at all of correspondences existed in the Israelite and Jewish nations, even though all the components of their worship, and all the judgments and statutes given them through Moses, were nothing but correspondent forms and expressions. That is because they were at heart idolaters, and of such character that they were not even willing to know that anything connected with their worship symbolized something celestial and spiritual. For they wished all their holy forms and expressions to be holy in themselves and in connection with them. Consequently, if the celestial and spiritual contents were to have been disclosed to them, they would not only have rejected them, but would also have profaned them. Therefore heaven was so closed to them that they scarcely knew of the possibility of eternal life.

The reality of this is clearly apparent from the fact that they did not acknowledge the Lord, even though the whole of their sacred scripture prophesied of Him and foretold His advent. They rejected Him for the sole reason that He taught them about a heavenly kingdom and not an earthly one. For they wanted a Messiah who would exalt them above every other nation in the whole world, and not some Messiah who concerned Himself with their eternal salvation.

They furthermore maintain that the Word contains within it many secrets that they call mystical, although they do not wish to know that these secrets have do to with the Lord. However, they do wish to know when told that the secrets have to do with gold.

  
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Thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

സ്വീഡൻബർഗിന്റെ കൃതികളിൽ നിന്ന്

 

Survey of Teachings of the New Church #119

ഈ ഭാഗം പഠിക്കുക

  
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119. The second memorable occurrence taken from Revelation Unveiled. One time just after I woke up from sleeping I fell into a deep meditation on God. Looking up I saw above me in heaven an oval of intensely shining light. As I fixed my gaze on the light, it gradually receded toward the sides and merged into the periphery [of my vision].

Then, behold, heaven opened up to me! I saw some magnificent things, and angels standing in a circle on the south side of the opening, talking to each other. Because a burning desire came over me to hear what they were saying, I was allowed to hear it — first the sound of it, which was full of heavenly love; then the conversation itself, which was full of the wisdom that goes with that love.

They were having a conversation about the only God, about being in partnership with God, and about the salvation that results. What they were saying was ineffable — most of it could not be expressed in the words of any earthly language. Several times before, however, I had been in gatherings of angels in heaven itself, and had been able to join in their conversation because I was then in a state similar to theirs. This enabled me to understand them now, and to select from their discussion a few points that could be expressed in a rational way using the words of earthly language.

[2] They were saying that the underlying divine reality is united, uniform, absolute, and undivided. They said that the same is true of the divine essence, because the underlying divine reality is the divine essence, and that the same is also true of God, because the divine essence that is the underlying divine reality is God. They used spiritual images as illustration.

They said, “The underlying divine reality cannot be divided into many entities, each of which possesses an underlying divine reality, and still remain united, uniform, absolute, and undivided. Otherwise each separate entity would think on its own from its own separate underlying divine reality. If it also happened to be concurrently of the same mind as the others, there would be a number of deities in agreement; there would not be one God. Agreement, or the consensus of many, each one acting on its own or by itself, is not an attribute of one God but of many.”

They did not say “gods” because they were unable to. It was suppressed by the light of heaven that shaped their thought and was the context in which their conversation took place. They also said that when they tried to utter the word “gods” and to describe each one as a person by himself, the effort to say that immediately veered off toward “one,” and in fact toward “the one only God.”

[3] They added, “The underlying divine reality is a reality in itself, not from itself, because if it were from itself, that would imply an underlying reality that existed in itself from some prior underlying reality. It would mean there was a god from a god, which is not possible. What comes from God is called ‘divine,’ but it is not called ‘God.’ What is ‘a god from God,’ what is ‘an eternally begotten god from God,’ and what is ‘a god emanating from an eternally begotten god from God’ except words utterly devoid of heavenly light?”

Later on they said, “The underlying divine reality, which in itself is God, is uniform — and uniform not just in a simple way but in an infinite number of ways. It is uniform from eternity to eternity. It is uniform everywhere, and it is uniform with everyone and in everyone. (It is the condition of the recipient that causes all the variety and variability in reception.)”

[4] The angels demonstrated the absoluteness of the underlying divine reality, which in itself is God, as follows: “God is the Absolute, because he is absolute love and absolute wisdom, or to put it another way, he is absolute goodness and absolute truth. As a result, he is life itself. If these qualities were not absolute in God they would never exist in heaven or in the world, because they would be relatively nonexistent compared to the Absolute. Every quality is what it is because it comes from the Absolute, both as its source and as its point of reference.

“The Absolute (meaning the underlying divine reality) has no specific location. It is with those and in those who are in specific locations, depending on how receptive they are. Love and wisdom, goodness and truth, and the life these qualities give are absolute in God; in fact, they are God himself. A specific location cannot be attributed to them, and neither can a progression from place to place as the source of their omnipresence — they are not in a particular place. For this reason the Lord says he is in the midst of people [Matthew 18:20]; and he is in them and they are in him [John 6:56; 14:20; 15:4, 5].

[5] “Nevertheless, no one can comprehend God as he is in himself. Therefore he appears as he is in himself to be a sun above the angelic heavens. He himself as wisdom emanates from that sun in the form of light, and he himself as love emanates from that sun in the form of heat. That sun is not God himself. The divine love and wisdom surrounding him as they first go forth from him come to angels’ view as a sun.

“The Absolute in that sun is the Human Being. It is our Lord Jesus Christ, including both the divine source and the divine-human manifestation. Since the Absolute, which is absolute love and absolute wisdom, was in him as his soul from the Father, therefore divine life or life in itself was in him. None of us is like this. The soul in us is not life; it is merely a vessel for receiving life.

“In fact, the Lord teaches this when he says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6); and in another passage, ‘Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has also granted the Son to have life in himself’ (John 5:26). ‘Life in himself’ is God.”

They added that people who have any spiritual light at all can see from all this that the underlying divine reality, which is also the divine essence, cannot be shared among many, because it is united, uniform, absolute, and undivided. If anyone were to claim that the divine reality could be shared, further points that person made on the subject would contain obvious contradictions.

[6] Then the angels became aware that my thoughts included common Christian ideas of God: ideas of a trinity of persons in unity, and a unity of persons in the Trinity, and also of the Son of God’s birth from eternity. At that point they said, “What are you thinking? Surely you are thinking those thoughts from an earthly light that is incompatible with our spiritual light. We are closing heaven to you and leaving unless you get rid of the ideas that go with that point of view.”

So I said, “Please go deeper into my thinking. Perhaps you will see a compatibility.”

They went deeper and saw that three persons to me meant three emanating divine activities: creating, redeeming, and regenerating, which are activities of the one only God. The birth of a Son of God from eternity to me meant his birth foreseen from eternity and carried out in time.

Then I explained that my earthly thoughts about the trinity and the unity of persons and about the eternally begotten Son of God were based on the church’s statement of faith that was named after Athanasius. I added that the Athanasian Creed is accurate, provided that instead of the trinity of persons mentioned there one substitutes a trinity in one person — a trinity that exists uniquely within the Lord Jesus Christ; and provided that instead of the birth of a Son of God from eternity one substitutes the birth foreseen from eternity and carried out in time, because his human manifestation is openly referred to as the Son of God.

[7] The angels then said, “Good, good.”

They asked me to pass on a statement from them: “Anyone who does not seek help from the absolute God of heaven and earth cannot come into heaven, because heaven is heaven as a result of the one only God. The absolute God is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah the Lord, Creator from eternity, Redeemer in time, and Regenerator to eternity. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit combined. This is the gospel that needs to be preached.”

Afterward the heavenly light I had seen above the opening came back. It came down bit by bit and filled the inner reaches of my mind, enlightening my ideas of the unity and the trinity of God. Then I saw my former merely earthly ideas being separated out, just as husks are shaken off wheat tossed in a winnowing basket. I saw my old notions carried off as if by a wind to the north of heaven and scattered.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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