SWEDENBORG'S ESCHATOLOGY

BY THE REV. JOSEPH J. THORNTON, of Glasgow

International Swedenborg Congress, London, July 4 to 8, 1910

II. DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.

In Swedenborg's Eschatology, DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION are exactly what the Old and New Testaments describe them to be.

The Lord Himself is "the resurrection and the life” (John xi. 25); because it is by His power that the dead are raised, and always were raised; for "all live unto Him" (Luke xx. 38). Men in this world are, and they always were, spirits, clothed with material bodies, every one's body being subject to the control of thought and the decision of affection; and no man ever lives except by the perpetual reception of life from God.

Swedenborg states the fundamental fact of human immortality when he says that man, as to his internal or spiritual form, “cannot die; for he can believe in God, and also love God" (A. C., 10591). This remains true even with the wicked; because, though a man may destroy his understanding of truth and his perception of good by falsification and perversion, "yet, by virtue of his ability to appropriate life as his own, he can conjoin himself with the Divine, and thence live to eternity" (A. E., 547). As a spiritual being, he is able to reciprocate the Divine in both acknowledgment and affection.

The spirit, viewed in itself, is the man who lives and feels; and when by the death of the natural body a man is separated from the mortal part, he still remains and lives,—being then immediately introduced among his like in the spiritual world. The spirit of a man, equally with his body, has a heart and lungs, a pulse and respiration. But the death of the body is a necessity, that man may arise from the material environment of earth, and be admitted into heaven. Physical death is nothing else but the putting off of the material part. To the man‑

As soon as the motion of the heart has entirely ceased, a man is raised again; and this is effected by the Lord alone (H. H., 447). "As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken, unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. xxii. 31, 32).

An intensely interesting part of Swedenborg's Eschatology is that in which he describes, from actual experience, the process of dying and being raised to life in the other world. It was granted to him to pass through a state "nearly" like that of dying persons: and he tells us that, when the respiration of the body was "almost taken away," the respiration of the spirit remained. Communication was opened with the Lord's celestial kingdom in heaven; angels were present; his own affection was taken away; and thought was received from the angels. There was a drawing and, as it were, an attractive force, pulling and extricating the spirit from the body; light was given; the angels sought to render service, and to convey instruction. Nothing but tender mercy ruled over the whole (see A. C., 168, and H. H, 449).

Thus it is that, according to Swedenborg's Eschatology, death is only like "passing from one place to another." Each man, as he dies, carries with him all things that belong to him as a man—his natural memory included; for he retains everything which he had heard, seen, read, learned, and thought in the world; though natural things are quiescent, unless reproduced "when the Lord pleases" (H. H., 461).

The time of every man's death is under the Lord's providence, and there are reasons why some die in childhood, some in youth, some in adult age, and some in old age. The first reason, determining the time of death, has regard to the man's own individual use in the world. The second arises I out of the fact that, while in the world, he is, as to his interiors, present with angels and spirits, and is of use to them. The third arises out of considerations bearing on his own regeneration, and the removal of dormant evils, which, if not detected and rejected, would bring him to misery hereafter. The fourth relates to his use in the other life, and to eternity. But whenever a man dies, whether sooner or later, his bodily death is followed by his spiritual resurrection, and those are specifically called by the Lord "The sons of the resurrection," and "equal to angels" (Luke xx. 36), who, by becoming regenerate on earth, are conjoined to the Lord by love, and thus are mentally in that spiritual "marriage of the good and the true" that makes them the "sons of his bride-chamber" (Matt. ix. 15).

Thus Swedenborg anticipated the now accepted truth that physical death is not, and never was, a penalty for man's wrong-doing; but rather an orderly step in human development. This was the Lord's teaching in John: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John xii. 24). The Lord's DIVINE HUMANITY, now lifted up from the earth and glorified, draws “all men" to Himself (John xii. 32). The resurrection is therefore an unfailing event to every man who passes from us by death. He lives again; "because the Lord lives" (John xiv. 19); for the Lord raises him up. The dust returns to its earth; but the spirit—always loved by God—renews consciousness, action, and use, in the spiritual world.

[References, other than from the Holy Scriptures referred to in this article, are from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century scientist biography.  Swedenborg penned thirty-five volumes from things he heard and saw in the spiritual world for a period of more than twenty-five years.  This material is available online or in literature form. If I can be of assistance, feel free to contact me.]