For anyone who believes in heaven, one question stands above all
the others: How can I get there? How can I be saved?
Christianity has offered a variety of answers over the millennia, from early sects that simply followed the example of Jesus to monasticism to the elaborate rites and rituals of medieval Catholicism to crusading warfare to the Protestants’ hope in the mercy and blood of Jesus.
For the most part, those concepts have regarded heaven as a paradise, where anyone would be happy no matter what he or she did to get there, and no matter what kind of person he or she is. This actually does not make a lot of sense if you think about it. If the cruel and power-hungry could attain heaven alongside the kind and caring, then surely they would make heaven a hell through their cruelty and desire to rule. And if the cruel and power-hungry were rendered non-cruel and non-power-hungry, would they still be themselves anymore?
Swedenborg’s idea of heaven – and hell – is different. In its theology both are simply spiritual states where we live with others who love the same things we do. If those loves are good and kind it will be a wonderful life of sharing and joy; if those loves are cruel and selfish we will end up in endless contention with others who are cruel and selfish.
Salvation, then, is a matter of letting the Lord change our hearts from a naturally selfish state to a heavenly, loving state. We do this by learning what is right and good, using our minds to lead us in doing those things, and asking the Lord to change our hearts. If we continue and stick to it, he will little by little do that, so that eventually we can reach a state where we love what is good and know what is true.
So is that salvation by faith? Salvation by works? In a way both, and neither. Works are involved, because we have to make ourselves do what we know is good and loving. Faith is involved because we have to invite the Lord into our hearts and know his teachings to make a true change. But neither can get us there without the other, and the ultimate judgment is on what we love, not what we’ve done or what we believe.
Passages from Swedenborg
Divine Providence (Dole) n. 338
3. Instant salvation by direct mercy is impossible. I have just explained that the work of divine providence for our salvation begins at our birth and continues until the end of our life and then goes on to eternity, and that this work is constantly being done out of pure mercy and through means. It follows that there is no such thing as instant salvation or direct mercy.
However, there are many people who do not think about church matters or religious matters with discernment. They believe that they are saved by direct mercy and that salvation therefore happens instantaneously; yet the opposite is true; and this is a destructive belief. For these reasons, it is important to lay the matter out in its sequence. (a) Belief in instant salvation by direct mercy is based on the state of our earthly natures. (b) This belief comes from an ignorance of our spiritual state, which is completely different from our earthly state. (c) If we look more deeply into the teaching of all the churches in the Christian world, they deny instant salvation by direct mercy; and yet nominal members of the church are sure of it.
Divine Providence (Dole) n. 339
We can now see that everyone who thinks about salvation on the basis of life has no thought of instant salvation by direct mercy. The thought is rather of the means of salvation, the means in and through which the Lord works according to the laws of his divine providence, through which we are therefore led by the Lord out of his pure mercy.
However, people who do not think about salvation on the basis of life add the "instant" component to salvation and the "direct" component to mercy. This is what people do who separate faith from charity--charity is a way of living--and make attaining faith instantaneous, an event that occurs at the last hour of dying, if not before. It is also what people do who believe that forgiveness of sins without repentance is absolution from sins and therefore salvation, and who then take the Holy Supper. This also applies to people who trust the indulgences issued by monks and their prayers for the departed and the dispensations given by a power some claim to have over human souls.
True Christian Religion (Dick) n. 726
Eternal life and salvation are not attainable without conjunction with the Lord, because He is eternal life and salvation. That He is eternal life is clearly evident from passages in the Word, as from this in John:
Jesus Christ "is the true God and eternal life." 1 John v. 20.
That He is salvation is equally evident, because salvation and eternal life are one. His name Jesus also signifies salvation; and, therefore, throughout the whole Christian world He is called the Savior. Nevertheless, only those worthily approach the Holy Supper who are interiorly conjoined with the Lord. Those are interiorly conjoined who are regenerate; and who are regenerate was shown in the chapter on Reformation and Regeneration.
There are many, indeed, who confess the Lord, and who do good to the neighbor; but unless they act from love towards the neighbor and from faith in the Lord, they are not regenerate. For they do good to the neighbor only for reasons that regard the world and themselves, and not the neighbor as the neighbor. Their works are merely natural and inwardly destitute of anything spiritual, because they confess the Lord with the mouth and lips only, while their heart is far away. Love itself towards the neighbor and faith itself are from the Lord alone; and both are given to man when from his own free will he does good to the neighbor on the natural plane, believes truths rationally, and looks to the Lord, doing these three things because they are commanded in the Word. Then the Lord implants charity and faith interiorly in him, and makes both spiritual. Thus the Lord conjoins man to Himself, and man conjoins himself to the Lord; for there can be no conjunction unless it is reciprocal. All this, however, has been fully shown in the chapters on Charity and Faith, Free Will and Regeneration.
True Christian Religion (Dick) n. 150
Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will receive those spiritual virtues, because He Himself is salvation and eternal life. He is salvation because He is the Savior, which His name, Jesus, means; and eternal life, because those have eternal life in whom He is and who are in Him; therefore also He is called eternal life in 1 John v. 20. Now, because He is salvation and eternal life, it follows that He is all that by which salvation and eternal life are obtained; consequently that He is the all of reformation, regeneration, renewal, vivification, sanctification, justification, purification from evils, and finallysalvation. The Lord renders these virtues effective in every man, that is, He endeavors to impart them; and when man adapts and prepares himself for their reception, He does then impart them. The active power itself of adaptation and preparation is also from the Lord; but if the man does not receive them with a willing spirit, the Lord cannot impart these virtues, although He makes the effort to do so without ceasing.
Divine Providence 258
[3] Under the Lord's divine providence, even though this kind of faith has become a theological tenet, everyone knows that this kind of faith does not bring salvation.Salvation requires a caring life in which faith participates. All the churches where this theology is accepted teach that there is nosalvation unless we examine ourselves, see our sins, admit them, repent, and refrain from the sins and begin a new life. This is the urgent preface read to all who come to the Holy Supper, together with the statement that unless they do so, they mingle the sacred and the profane and consign themselves to eternal damnation. In England they even say that unless they do so the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas and destroy them, soul and body alike. We can see from this that everyone in churches where faith alone is accepted is still taught that we should abstain from evils as sins.
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”