The Lord's New Chapel
The Earths in the starry Heaven; The first Earth which was seen there
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Isaiah 6: 1-4, Jeremiah 1: 11-13. Ezekiel 1: 1-5,  Revelation 1:7,9,10
Arcana Coelestia 9579, 9582, 9693,9694, 9695
    I was led by the Lord through angels to a certain earth in the universe, where it was granted to me to gaze upon the earth itself, yet not to converse with the inhabitants of that earth, but with the spirits who came from it. For all the inhabitants, that is, the men of every earth, after terminating their life in the world, become spirits, and remain about their own earth. From them, however, information is obtained concerning an earth, and the state of its inhabitants; for the men who depart out of the body, bring with them the whole of their former life, and the whole of their memory.        (Arcana Coelestia 9578)                                                   

Men who were lead in the spirit by the Lord wrote the Word. Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up . . .." (Isa. 6:1). Many times he wrote that the Lord spoke to him. Jeremiah says, "The Lord spoke to me, saying Jeremiah, what seest thou" (Jer. 1:11). Many times he says, "The Word of Jehovah came into me". How did the Word come unto him and how did Jeremiah hear the Lord speak to Him? Ezekiel says, "I saw visions of Jehovah." And the "Heavens were opened" (Eze. 1:1). How did he and Isaiah see these visions? Many times the Word had came unto Ezekiel.

We read in the book of Revelation that John said he was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He says, "I, John, saw". Both he and the other prophets saw and heard many things - truths - while in the spirit. They saw with their spiritual eyes and heard with their spiritual ears. So, we ought not to be surprised that Emanuel Swedenborg says that he was led by the Lord to see the many things he wrote in the Word of the Divine Human, the Latin Word. The average Christian from the 'Old Christian' Church accepts what the prophets wrote as the Word of God and believe it is the truth. We, of the Lord's New Church' do likewise, but we also believe that the religious works of E. Swedenborg are also the Word of the Lord and the Truth.

However, today, there is this problem within the Old Christian Churches: The Word believed by the average Christian is understood in its natural sense only. Many of the visions that were seen and written by the prophets are wondrous things to read and one may wonder what do they all mean; how are they to be understood? How do they teach us of the Lord and of His Divine qualities or of His Church and of Heaven? That is what the Word should teach us; that is why it is given to us. In this case, in today's lessons, what good does it do knowing these wondrous things about 'other earths' in the 'starry Heavens' that Swedenborg reveals if we only understand it as some natural knowledge about astronomy? The question should be how do we learn more about the Lord and how are we led into reformation and into regeneration when we read about these other earths? If we only understand these things, these spiritual truths, in their natural sense, we understand very little and the truth with us is not saving truth. At best we know only apparent truths and these, at length, leave us questioning, 'what is the real or genuine truth'?

Swedenborg wrote, "I was led by the Lord through angels to a certain earth in the universe" (AC9578). How did the Lord lead him? Was it in his natural body? No, for we read later on that he was in his spirit. He was in a state of willing and of thinking, not from himself, but from the Lord. We, too, must come into such a state so that the Lord can lead and teach us. It is a state in which the angels are. The angels are in the Divine principle of Truths and of Goods and their affections, which was and is from the Lord and in the Lord. Thus, it is that through angles that Swedenborg was led to a certain earth while in the spirit. What really was Swedenborg led to? Was it a natural, a physical earth somewhere in the universe? In other words, for this to make any sense, the earth spoken of in the Word is to be seen in correspondences of something spiritual. And, those things are the things that proceed from the Lord, from the Internal - the Celestial and Spiritual Heavens - created by the Lord and are called in the Word 'earths'. These 'earths' are inferior things, even the inferior Heaven and the Church and, so, too, the natural. They are all called the things in the universe; that is, they are the end, the cause, and the effect, all of which comes from God. We see here a 'work' of creation cohering from the firsts to the lasts, working in the natural universe. Even in the lower Heaven and in the Church under or below is 'natural' love, which we know is the end - the purpose of creation. Wisdom which is the promotion of an end by mediate causes and through them to effects, which are uses, in the Word, which in the Word 'universe' signifies. It is a work continent of Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, and of Divine Uses.

Continuing we read again.
"It was granted to me to gaze upon the earth itself . . .to converse with . . .the spirits who came from it" (AC9578). That this was permitted or granted was for the sake of the end, that is, because of the Lord's love for His creation - man. Swedenborg was allowed to think about the external, the natural things of the understanding through correspondences. And, so he could see or understand what are the affections of such a life of others who are not of our religion - the Christian - which is to become the crown of all Churches - the New Christian Church - that now comes into this world. One can see here that his journey was a spiritual journey; it was within his thoughts. Now aren't angles and spirits with us, even evil spirits? Don't they cause our thoughts and don't we, in this way, think and understand, and as it were 'journey' through various things related to the order and life?

Let us read again the Word from our text and lesson and see if we can learn what the Lord wants to teach us. "For all the inhabitants, that is, the men of every earth, after terminating their life in the world, become spirits, and remain about their own earth" (AC9578). Who are the inhabitants of the various earths mentioned in the Word here? First, we have seen that by 'earth' in the Word is meant that which proceeds from the Lord - the Internal, that is, the Celestial and Spiritual and to the External things - such as the Church on earth, things which are from the Lord. Therefore, the inhabitants are either men of the various religions who are in the good of doctrine and so, are in the good of life, or are men who are principled in other doctrines of faith. And, such doctrine of such faith refers to all whose faith is either in themselves, which we who are in the New Church readily learn about in the Word, or are in a faith in some representative of deity. Men of 'every earth' spiritually signify the exterior or external man in which there is the natural principle - in one's good or evil, and the false or in true doctrines coming from the principles within their Church.

Here, of course, the Church meant is within the person, and is that which was within received from the Lord according to its acceptance and accommodation. The 'termination' is the end and the completion of that human principle after there is the death of the natural body. This was the person's life while in the world and is what was received from the Lord - those goods, the Love and the truths - through influx from Him. What is received either makes the Church as to all its goods and truths in him, or because of the lack of such reception of these from the Lord, makes a life of evil. These, because of their affections or of their wills, are called spirits and that they remain or abide - dwell - near their own earth is because they have developed their own loves, that is, their life while they lived 'as it were' on their own earth, that is, in their own religious beliefs.

In Arcana Coelestial 9582 we read,
"In company with some spirits from a certain earth in the universe, and while in a state of wakefulness I was led by the Lord, as to my spirit, through angels to that earth; the progression took place towards the right and continued for two hours."  From a natural understanding Swedenborg was among spirits that were from another earth or religion while in the spirit. So, like the 'Last Judgment' that John saw while in the spirit, Swedenborg was not in the natural universe, but the spiritual universe, for the 'Last Judgment' as we have been taught took place in the world of spirits. All who come into the spiritual world come there in various affections of life and in various understandings, which they had developed and lived in the natural world. Each has learned and accepted a particular, a specific affection and knowledge. Now, it was said that Swedenborg was there in a state of wakefulness, that is, that the life of affection of good and truth were clear to him. He understood truth in its spiritual sense; he knew and believed the laws of Order - the religious scientifics of celestial things and such as was the power of the intellectual or the spiritual understanding, which was his faith that brought, in respect to good, him into this state. He was led in his thinking to the principle, to the ultimate ground, of which there are interior things of the Christian religion, for we read that he was led "near to the end of our solar system." Swedenborg was the means the Lord used to bring about the New Christian Church. We confirm this by the words 'our soar system'. 'Our' referring to the New Christian Church which the Lord has established by means of the Word - the Word of the Divine Human, which is the Latin Word. 'Solar' signifies the Sun of the Celestial and Spiritual world, meaning the Lord's Divine Love through which the natural man lives.

Now, the Lord operates in man through various systems of theology. Faith enters man through these systems of theology that a man is born into. In other words, a man is brought to the knowledge of the Lord God through these different beliefs or theologies - such as Christian, Mohammedism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, plus the many ancient religions that existed long before and during the time Israelites lived. At this point we might recall that the doctrine taught in the New Church is that no matter what religion a person believes the Lord can led him or her into Heaven, if they do good to the neighbor 'as if' from themselves. Here, in this external state, in which there is a certain truth that man is in, there was seen, first, a 'whitish shinning, but dense cloud'. The truths these people had appeared to be true to them, even as the Word is written in appearances of truth. They were truths according to their own natural understanding of their religious system or teaching; they were not internal truths - spiritual and celestial - for the light by which they saw or understood by was natural and, so, was a worldly light or natural understanding. Yet, there was also seen "a fiery smoke which ascended from a great gulf", indicating that even in such a system of theology there was both natural good and evil love as there is in the man of the Christian Church. The Divine Truth was in their ultimate or their natural thoughts and is as our truths. If they are good, ascend to the Heaven with the angels and to the Lord, and if evil descend to hell with evil spirits.

Between our Christian beliefs and other religious systems or beliefs there is a separation, one that is contrary on to another. The goods and truths they possess are not joined with us even as evil is not conjoined with good or falsity from evil with truth. We see that, because the Lord through the Word led and taught Swedenborg that he was allowed to perceive what their external religious beliefs were which caused the Lord's presence with them even though they were not of the Christian Church. There it is taught this in the words, "After I (Swedenborg) had been taken across that great chasm, I at length reached the place where I stopped" (AC9693). Continuing, 'Spirits', we read, "appeared to me above, and it was granted to me to converse with them." When in the company of spirits there is communication of truths and goods and the affections of one's life is known. Here, because they appeared above it is meant that they the truths were internal or inmost. Of course, this is from Divine Providence. Divine Providence not only operates in the natural, the physical world, but also in the spiritual world.
Let us continue reading the Word. "From their speech and particular way in which they noticed things, and expounded them, I discerned clearly that they belonged to another earth" (AC9693). Languages represent and signify in distinctive ways and are perceived according to an interior dictate or internal speech. It is 'as if' one journeyed to a foreign country and understanding their language could detect what they meant or signified representing different things then what they would mean in one's own country. It is the same when we hear people from another religion other than our own.

Next, the question, "What God do you worship?" was asked. Here, was their answer: "Some angel who appeared to them as a Divine Man." When we are asked this question, we say, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was seen as a Divine Human. Isn't it an angel that signifies Divine Truth? Haven't angels in the past appeared to men and brought them truths. So, it is not too difficult to understand that the spirits that Swedenborg was permitted to understand received and learned their beliefs or truths and so learned about their doctrine, which was also from the Divine. For the angel that taught them taught what they must do had appeared 'resplendent from light', that is, the angel was seen in the good of truth. This instruction was understood naturally, for they said that "the Highest God was in the sun of the angelic Heaven, and that He appeared to their angel, but not to themselves" (AC9694). It is much the same with the many in whom is in the Old Christian Churches. They believe that God, who they call 'Father' cannot be seen or approached.

In closing, the Word 'earth', here, in our text and lesson is expressed as a 'Heavenly body', which has inhabitants. The starry heavens or the stars of heaven are the multitudes of knowledges of goods and truths and as spirits are not in the natural world to be in the natural sky, but are in the spiritual world. Then it is not the various planets or earths or stars that are meant. I ask, are there not multitudes of different societies in Heaven from the natural world? Is not the Grand Man of Heaven made of all these societies and is not that their habitation?

Amen.
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