Swedenborg Sampler

Steg _9713: Swedenborg Sampler Introduction

Steg _9713: Part 1: True Christian Religion

Steg _9713: What is God's love like?

Steg _9713: Why doesn't God save everyone?

Steg _9713: Why do we need the Lord?

Steg _9713: The power He can give us

Steg _9713: Fatal errors in traditional Christian doctrine

Steg _9713: Why is a notion of God such a remote part of Western culture?

Steg _9713: What do people see when they look at the Word of God?

Steg _9713: The Word's deeper meaning

Steg _9713: The Word's deeper meaning (continued)

Steg _9713: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal")

Steg _9713: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Steg _9713: Levels of meaning in the Ten Commandments (from the section on "You shall not steal") (continued)

Steg _9713: How do we acquire faith?

Steg _9713: How much do we have to know?

Steg _9713: What is charity?

Steg _9713: What is charity? (continued)

Steg _9713: First remove the beam from your own eye

Steg _9713: True expressions of charity are God working through us

Steg _9713: Doesn't everyone believe that people have freedom of choice in spiritual things?

Steg _9713: Our freedom exists from our spirit

Steg _9713: What seems like freedom isn't necessarily so

Steg _9713: Repentance is the first thing of the church with a person

Steg _9713: Repentance is not just a matter of saying the right words

Steg _9713: A person is not born evil, but is born with inclinations to love things that are evil

Steg _9713: Seeing good and evil within our own lives

Steg _9713: What is real repentance?

Steg _9713: It's easier to see sin in another than in oneself

Steg _9713: Two advancing states of mind for those on the path to heaven

Steg _9713: The Lord brings about spiritual rebirth with our cooperation

Steg _9713: What is temptation?

Steg _9713: Why do some people think that God doesn't care what choices we make in our daily life?

Steg _9713: There is a current drawing all toward heaven

Steg _9713: Part 2: Arcana Coelestia

Steg _9713: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word

Steg _9713: People don't see the Lord's presence in the Word (continued)

Steg _9713: The state of mind of a person before his regeneration

Steg _9713: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . .

Steg _9713: The evil of every church that ever was and is. . . . (continued)

Steg _9713: Seeing the evil in others versus seeing the good in them

Steg _9713: How the love of self blinds a person to reality

Steg _9713: Why Christianity has been split into conflicting groups

Steg _9713: What motivates a person's efforts in difficult times?

Steg _9713: Without charity in our hearts we cannot live together as brethren

Steg _9713: The Lord never compels anyone because it doesn't work; each person needs to compel himself

Steg _9713: The quality of a person who knows the truth but doesn't care about what is good

Steg _9713: True wisdom of life is gentle and yet also conquers all

Steg _9713: The essential importance of self‑compulsion

Steg _9713: The Lord's willingness to adapt to where a person is

Steg _9713: Prayer regarded in itself is talking with God

Steg _9713: An affirmative or negative approach to God's Word

Steg _9713: Feeling terrible can lead to wisdom

Steg _9713: The Lord cares for the very tiniest details of our lives

Steg _9713: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil

Steg _9713: If a person believed as the case really is. . .he could not become guilty of any evil (continued)

Steg _9713: The Lord does not allow the evil which accompanies doubt and temptation unless some good can come of it

Steg _9713: Peace has in it confidence in the Lord

Steg _9713: Care for the morrow and trusting in the Lord

Steg _9713: The Lord looks after the details as well as the big picture

Steg _9713: Stages of human development

Steg _9713: Part 3: Divine Love and Wisdom

Steg _9713: Love is the life of a person

Steg _9713: Feeling the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving

Steg _9713: If a person thinks from ideas of space and time, he can never understand God or anything spiritual

Steg _9713: Without a knowledge of discrete degrees [spiritual levels] nothing of cause can be known

Steg _9713: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person

Steg _9713: There are three degrees of spiritual life potential in each person (continued)

Steg _9713: What distinguishes humans from animals?

Steg _9713: In the human mind the will and understanding work together, but the will leads

Steg _9713: The quality life of a person who is natural but with whom the spiritual degree of his mind is opened

Steg _9713: The quality of life of a person who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not opened, yet not closed

Steg _9713: The quality of life of a person life who is natural and in whom the spiritual degree of his mind is not entirely closed.

Steg _9713: A bad person as well as a good one who has both freedom and rationality

Steg _9713: In a state of evil, goodness seems like slavery and evil like freedom

Steg _9713: True love has use for an end and intends it

Steg _9713: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for sustaining the body

Steg _9713: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for perfecting the rational

Steg _9713: All things created by the Lord are uses -- Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord

Steg _9713: Reasons why it is excusable for some people to see nature as a source of life

Steg _9713: Love of self and the world were by creation heavenly loves

Steg _9713: Part 4: Divine Providence

Steg _9713: A person can see the Lord's hand in all of creation if he wishes

Steg _9713: The Divine Providence of the Lord has as its goal a heaven from the human race

Steg _9713: The more someone recognizes what he gets from the Lord, the more free he is

Steg _9713: It is a law of the Divine Providence that people should act from freedom according to reason [that is, according their best understanding of what is true].

Steg _9713: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should, apparently by their own power, remove evil [thoughts and deeds] as sins in the external person.

Steg _9713: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and therefore to believe and love, the things of religion, but should persuade and at times compel himself to do so.

Steg _9713: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this to all appearance as of himself.

Steg _9713: The Word taught by means of people, but still directly by the Lord

Steg _9713: It is a law of the Divine Providence that a person should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but still that he should know and acknowledge it.

Steg _9713: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events?

Steg _9713: Why doesn't the Lord allow us to gain a specific knowledge of future events? (continued)

Steg _9713: How would we tend to behave if we were able to clearly see the direction the Lord is leading us?

Steg _9713: God is the master architect of our eternal lives

Steg _9713: If therefore, you wish to be led by the Divine Providence. . . .

Steg _9713: What is fortune or luck?

Steg _9713: Images of the Divine Providence operating in our lives

Steg _9713: The Lord never wills that an evil [event] should happen, but He does permit it to occur

Steg _9713: Reasons why people doubt or deny that there is such a thing as the Divine Providence

Steg _9713: Evil [loves] cannot be removed unless they appear

Steg _9713: No one is born to fry

Steg _9713: The operation of the Divine Providence from birth to the end of life

Steg _9713: Part 5: Conjugial Love

Steg _9713: Very few people know the true source of joy in heaven

Steg _9713: What happened to people who arrived in the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from endless opportunities for wonderful conversations?

Steg _9713: What happened to people who arrived at the life after death thinking that heavenly happiness comes from mere admission to heaven?

Steg _9713: In the life after death a male is still very much a male and a female very much a female

Steg _9713: What about the Lord's statement from the New Testament that there is no marriage after death?

Steg _9713: What is a male angel's reaction to the opposite sex?

Steg _9713: What happens when married partners meet after death?

Steg _9713: Why some marriages formed on earth do not continue to eternity?

Steg _9713: All joys and all delights are gathered within a true love of marriage

Steg _9713: A true love of marriage requires a person to approach the Lord directly

Steg _9713: The arguments of a polygamist (in the life after death) on why his approach to marriage is best

Steg _9713: Contrary to some people's ideas, the husband is not the head of the wife

Steg _9713: Love of marriage is closely related to a person's outlook on religion

Steg _9713: The states of mind that accompany a true love of marriage

Steg _9713: Will my marriage get better or worse as time goes by?

Steg _9713: What happens when a relationship is a power struggle?

Steg _9713: A temporal or non-eternal focus is contradictory to a true love of marriage

Steg _9713: The first meeting of a future husband and wife in heaven

Steg _9713: Spiritual intimacy is the real basis for a true love of marriage

Steg _9713: Part 6: Heaven and Hell

Steg _9713: Why did Swedenborg have the experiences that he did, and why was this book written?

Steg _9713: The Lord loves variety

Steg _9713: Everything of this world springs from and has permanent existence from the spiritual world

Steg _9713: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun

Steg _9713: The Lord's presence in heaven is like the light and warmth of the sun (continued)

Steg _9713: The ups and downs in the life of an angel

Steg _9713: Life in heaven does not follow a clock

Steg _9713: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Steg _9713: Life in heaven does not follow a clock (continued)

Steg _9713: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way

Steg _9713: In heaven when you want to be somewhere, distance doesn't get in the way (continued)

Steg _9713: What is the innocence of a wise person?

Steg _9713: What is heavenly joy like?

Steg _9713: What happens to children who die?

Steg _9713: What happens to children who die? (continued)

Steg _9713: Children in heaven need to learn how to resist the pressure to follow others

Steg _9713: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven

Steg _9713: The Lord doesn't expect us to choose a poor and rough life to earn heaven (continued)

Steg _9713: What happens after death to someone who intentionally chose a deprived life to earn a heavenly reward?

Steg _9713: Being poor can lead one away from heaven just as much as being rich

Steg _9713: How big is heaven?

Steg _9713: How big is heaven? (continued)

Steg _9713: Angels live at the peak of youthful life forever

Steg _9713: We are spirits even now

Steg _9713: We are spirits even now (continued)

Steg _9713: The end of natural life is but a passing

Steg _9713: Intention makes the person

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death?

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Steg _9713: What happens to a person when he wakes up in the life after death? (continued)

Steg _9713: It is not so difficult to lead the life that leads to heaven

Steg _9713: How is there a balance between the power of heaven and that of hell?

Steg _9713: Determined evil can be controlled only by punishments

Steg _9713: How does anyone end up in hell if the Lord sends no one there?

Steg _9713: What is it like to arrive in a community in hell?

Steg _9713: How does the equilibrium between heaven and hell affect our lives?