There is a beautiful line in Swedenborg’s “Divine Love and
Wisdom” noting that the Lord loves reverence, worship and praise not for himself but “for our sake, because they bring us into a state where something divine can flow in and be felt.”
This brings to mind the well-known phrases of Micah 6:7-8:
“Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”
The message in both is the same: Worship rituals are for us, not for the Lord. The Lord doesn’t care what words are in our mouths when we worship, or what holy items are in our hands; he cares about what’s in our hearts and what’s in our lives.
This is a theme echoed in many discussions of worship in Swedenborg. When we make an effort to understand what the Lord wants from us and do it because it’s right, then we are in a state of worship, even if it’s 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and the good thing we’re doing is starting a new work project instead of goofing off for the rest of the afternoon. Worship, then, can happen any time, or even all the time.
So what about more structured worship – church services and other rituals? The real value there is that structured worship can help us focus our thoughts on the Lord, can teach us more about the Lord’s wishes and can move us toward a mental state where “something divine can flow in,” so when the 2:30 p.m. doldrums roll around we’ll be ready to handle temptation.
One way structured worship does that is through the power of external symbolism. Kneeling in prayer is a symbol of humility, and can remind us to acknowledge the Lord’s power. An open Bible on the altar is a symbol that the Lord is seeking to enter our minds, and can remind us to let him in. Even the act of going to church itself is symbolic, forcing us to make time in our lives to specifically worship the Lord.
Such symbolism was, according to Swedenborg, the essence of worship itself in the most ancient times. Early humans -- in what Swedenborg calls the Most Ancient Church -- were born into the love of the Lord, and from that love saw details of the Lord’s nature in every element of the world around them. Swedenborg says that when they looked at mountains they were barely aware of their physical presence; instead they saw “height,” which corresponds to closeness to the Lord. Instead of fruit trees they saw true principles (trunks) branching out to individual rational concepts (leaves) all supporting efforts to be good and do what’s good (the fruit). Through this they were in a state of constant awareness of the Lord – essentially a state of constant worship.
People eventually fell into evil, though, and the Lord raised up a church – the Ancient Church – in which people had a similar knowledge of the relationships between physical things and spiritual ones, but knew it as a learned, intellectual thing rather than something springing from their loves. Because of this knowledge they began worshiping on mountains and in groves of trees because of the meaning those things had, and used carved figures of animals and other objects because of what they represented spiritually. That church would also later adopt sacrifice, with its powerful spiritual symbolism, as a component – and eventually the primary component – of worship.
Over time the people of the Ancient Church began paying more attention to the physical aspects of worship than to their spiritual meanings, however, and started worshiping the objects that had once merely symbolized spiritual things. Swedenborg says this devolved into the practice of magic, and the sacrifice of animals and other foodstuffs devolved into human sacrifice. So the Lord raised up another church whose people knew nothing of spiritual things, but who (sometimes) followed commands and had the capacity to write down a massive array of spiritually significant rituals: the Children of Israel.
As that church also fell into evil, the Lord came in the flesh as Jesus, to teach the deeper meaning of existing symbolism and offer spiritual truth to people more directly. Swedenborg says that the nature of worship changed with his advent; through the teachings of Jesus we can learn about the Lord without relying on symbolism, and can worship him as the ultimate human he is. Knowing the symbolism of the Bible and of the natural world can add immensely to our understanding, but it does not play the central role it once did.
So what does all this mean to us today? Swedenborg describes worship as “adoration of the Lord from the heart” (AC 1150). That’s something that can be done personally, anywhere and at any time. But it’s something that implies some learning – you can’t really adore the Lord if you don’t know who he is – and also implies some follow-through – if you truly adore the Lord you will try to do what he wants. That’s where formal worship can play a significant role.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 920
In this verse the worship of the Ancient Church in general is described, that is, by 'the altar and its burnt offerings', which were the chief features of all representative worship. First of all however the nature of the worship of the Most Ancient Church must be mentioned, and from that how worship of the Lord by means of representatives arose.
For the member of the Most Ancient Church there was no other worship than internal such as is offered in heaven, for among those people heaven so communicated with man that they made one. That communication was perception, which has been frequently spoken of already. Thus, being angelic people, they were internal men.
They did indeed apprehend with their senses the external things that belonged to the body and to the world, but they paid no attention to them. In each object apprehended by the senses they used to perceive something Divine and heavenly. For example, when they saw any high mountain they did not perceive the idea of a mountain but that of height, and from height they perceived heaven and the Lord. That is how it came about that the Lord was said to 'live in the highest', and was called 'the Most High and Lofty One', and how worship of the Lord came at a later time to be celebrated on mountains.
The same applies to all other objects. For example, when they perceived the morning they did not perceive morning time itself that starts the day but that which is heavenly and is a likeness of the morning and of the dawn in people's minds. This was why the Lord was called the Morning, the East, and the Dawn. Similarly when they perceived a tree and its fruit and leaves they paid no attention to these objects themselves but so to speak saw man represented in them. In the fruit they saw love and charity, and in the leaves faith. Consequently the member of the Church was not only compared to a tree, and also to a tree-garden, and what resided with him to fruit and leaves, but was even called such.
[2] Such is the character of people whose ideas are heavenly and angelic. Everyone may know that a general idea governs all the particular aspects, and this applies to all objects apprehended by the senses, both those which people see and those they hear. Indeed they pay no attention to such objects except insofar as these enter into the general idea a person has. Take the person who has a cheerful disposition; everything he hears and sees seems to him to contain joy and laughter. But for one who has a sad disposition everything he sees and hears seems to be sad and dismal. The same applies to every other kind of person, for their general affection is present within each individual part and causes each individual part to be seen and heard in the general affection. Other features do not even show themselves but are so to speak absent or insignificant.
This was so with the member of the Most Ancient Church. Whatever he saw with his eyes was for him heavenly, and so with him every single thing was so to speak alive.
[3] From this the nature of that Church's Divine worship becomes clear, namely that it was internal and not at all external. When however the Church went into decline, as it did among its descendants, and that perception, or communication with heaven, began to die out, a different situation started to emerge. In objects apprehended by the senses they no longer perceived, as they had done previously, that which is heavenly, but that which is worldly. And the more they perceived that which is worldly the less perception remained with them. At length among their final descendants, who came immediately before the Flood, they apprehended nothing at all in such objects except that which was worldly, bodily, and earthly. Thus heaven became separated from mankind and communicated with it in none but an extremely remote way. Man's communication now changed to a communication with hell, and from there he obtained his general idea from which, as has been stated, stem the ideas belonging to every individual part. In this situation, when any heavenly idea came to them, it had no value for them. At length they were not even willing to acknowledge the existence of anything spiritual or celestial. Thus man's state came to be altered and turned upside down.
[4] Because the Lord foresaw that the state of mankind was to become such as this, He also provided for the preservation of doctrinal matters concerning faith so that from them people might know what was celestial and what was spiritual. These matters of doctrine were gathered together from the members of the Most Ancient Church by the people dealt with already called Cain and those called Enoch. This is why it is said of Cain that a sign was placed upon him to prevent anyone killing him, and of Enoch that he was taken by God. Concerning these two, see Chapter 4:15 - in 393, 394 - and 5:24. These matters of doctrine consisted exclusively in things that were meaningful signs and so things of a seemingly enigmatic nature. That is to say, they consisted in earthly objects which carried spiritual meanings, such as mountains, which meant heavenly things and the Lord; the morning and the east, which also meant heavenly things and the Lord; various kinds of trees and their fruits, which meant man and the heavenly things that are his; and so on. These were the things that their matters of doctrine consisted in, which had been gathered together from the meaningful signs of the Most Ancient Church. Their writings too were consequently of this nature. Now because they wondered at, and to themselves seemed to detect, that which was Divine and heavenly in such matters of doctrine, and also because of the antiquity of these, they began and were allowed to make such things the basis of their worship. This was the origin of their worship on mountains, in groves, and among trees, also of their pillars in the open air, and later on of altars and burnt offerings which ended up as the chief features of all worship. Such worship was begun by the Ancient Church, and from there spread to their descendants and to all the nations round about. These and many other matters as well will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1150
That 'the sons of Japheth' means those who possessed external worship corresponding to internal has been stated already. It is called external worship corresponding to internal when the worship has what is essential within it. And that which is essential is adoration of the Lord from the heart, which in no sense exists unless charity, or love towards the neighbour, is present. It is in charity or love towards the neighbour that the Lord is present, in which case it is possible for Him to be adored from the heart. Thus it is from the Lord that adoration comes, for the Lord makes all adoration possible and gives it all its being. It follows therefore that as is a person's charity, so is his adoration or worship. All worship is adoration, for adoration of the Lord must be in it for it to be worship. The sons of Japheth, that is, the nations and peoples called the sons of Japheth, lived with one another in mutual charity, in friendship, in civility, and in simplicity, and consequently the Lord was present in their worship. For when the Lord is present in external worship internal worship is in that case within the external, that is, there is external worship corresponding to internal. In former times very many nations were such, and nations also exist at the present day who focus worship on external things without knowing what the internal is. And if they do know they give no thought to those matters. If those people acknowledge the Lord and love the neighbour, the Lord is in their worship and they are 'sons of Japheth'. But if they deny the Lord, love only themselves and do not care about the neighbour, worse still if they hate him, then their worship is external separated from internal, and they are 'sons of Canaan' or Canaanites.
Arcana Coelestia 1153
In general all variations of external worship, as also of internal, arise according to the adoration of the Lord in the worship, and the adoration is according to the love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour that exist there. For it is within love that the Lord is present, and thus within worship. The differences of worship therefore existing among the nations mentioned here depend on the nature of His presence within.
[2] To make it easier to talk about how types of worship differ and how they did so in the Ancient Church among various nations, let it be realized that all true worship consists in adoration of the Lord. Adoration of the Lord consists in being humble; and being humble consists in the self-acknowledgement that with oneself there is nothing living and nothing good, but that with oneself everything is dead, indeed corpse-like. Being humble also consists in the acknowledgement that everything living and everything good come from the Lord. The more a person acknowledges these things not just with the lips but in his heart, the more humility he has; and consequently the more adoration - which is true worship - and the more love and charity, and the more happiness. The first contains the second, and they are so linked together as to be inseparable. This shows what these differences of worship are and the nature of them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1175
That 'Nimrod' means those who made internal worship external, and so means such external worship, becomes clear from what follows. But first of all it should be mentioned here what is meant by making internal worship external. It has been stated and shown already that internal worship, which springs from love and charity, is worship itself, and that external worship without that internal is not worship at all. Making internal worship external however consists in making external worship essential instead of internal, which is the reverse of worship itself. It is like saying that internal worship without external is no worship, when in reality external worship without internal is no worship at all. Such is the religion of people who separate faith from charity. That is to say, they make matters of faith more important than matters of charity, or rather, they make things which constitute cognitions of faith more important than the things which constitute life, and so make outward forms more important than inner essentials. All external worship is the outward form of internal worship, for internal worship is the inner essential itself. Making worship consist of the outward form devoid of its inner essential is making internal worship external. It is like saying, for example, that if a person lived where there was no Church, no preaching, no sacraments, and no priesthood, it would be impossible for him to be saved or to have any kind of worship, when in fact he is able to worship the Lord from what is internal. It does not follow from this however that there should not be external worship.
[2] To make the point plainer still, take as another example people who make the essential of worship consist in going to church, attending the sacraments, listening to sermons, praying, celebrating the festivals, and many more practices of an external and ceremonial nature, and who convince themselves, while talking of faith, that these activities, which are the outward forms of worship, are sufficient. People, it is true, who make worship springing from love and charity the essential engage in the same activities, that is to say, they go to church, attend the sacraments, listen to sermons, pray, celebrate the festivals, and much else, doing so most earnestly and carefully. But they do not make these practices the essential of worship. Since their external worship has internal worship within it, it has that which is holy and living within it; whereas the worship of the people mentioned above does not have anything holy or living within it. For it is the inner essential itself that makes the external form or ceremony holy and living. Faith separated from charity cannot make worship holy and living, for its essence and life are missing. Such worship is called 'Nimrod' and is born out of the cognitions, meant by 'Cush', which in turn are born out of faith separated from charity, a faith meant by 'Ham'. From Ham, or separated faith, through cognitions which belong to separated faith, no other kind of worship can possibly be born. These are the considerations meant by 'Nimrod'.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1326
That 'therefore He called the name of it Babel' means such worship, namely that meant by 'Babel', is clear from what has been stated so far - about worship which inwardly contains self-love and therefore everything that is filthy and unholy. Self-love is nothing else than the proprium, and how filthy and unholy this is becomes clear from what has been shown already about the proprium in 210, 215. From philautia,* that is, from self-love or the proprium, flow all evils, such as those of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and irreligion. Consequently when self-love or the proprium is present in worship, such evils are present too - but the particular kind of evils and their intensity being determined by the extent and nature of what flows from that self-love. This is the origin of all profanation in worship. The fact of the matter is that insofar as self-love or the proprium introduces itself into worship, internal worship departs, that is, internal worship ceases to exist. Internal worship consists in the affection for good and in the acknowledgement of truth, but to the extent that self-love or the proprium intrudes or enters in, the affection for good and the acknowledgement of truth depart or go away.
Arcana Coelestia 7038
The reason why performing useful services is meant by 'serving the Lord' is that true worship consists in the performance of such services, thus in the exercise of charity. Anyone who thinks that serving the Lord consists solely in going to church regularly, listening to the preaching there, and saying his prayers, and that that is sufficient, is much mistaken. True worship of the Lord consists in performing useful services; and such services during a person's life in the world lie in a proper fulfillment of his function by each person, whatever his own position, that is, in serving his country, its communities, and his neighbour with all his heart. They also lie in honest dealings with fellow human beings and in the diligent discharge of duties, with full regard for each person's character. These useful deeds are the principal ways of exercising charity and the principal means of worship ping the Lord. Going to church regularly, listening to sermons, and saying one's prayers are also necessary; but without the useful deeds they have no value at all, for they do not constitute a person's life but teach what that life ought to be like. The angels in heaven get nothing but happiness out of being useful; and they receive it in proportion to their usefulness. So true is this that to them usefulness is what makes heaven.
Arcana Coelestia 9925
By this worship is meant everything representative of that worship which springs from the good of love and the truths of faith. For worship that springs from these is indeed worship; but worship devoid of them is like the shell without the nut, and like the body without the soul. This is what the worship among the Jewish and Israelite nation was like, since their worship did no more than represent inward things, which are those of love and faith, as has been stated. Even so, the Lord saw to it that such worship should be discerned in the heavens, so that through it a link with mankind might be established, not through inner things but through the correspondences of these with outward things, regarding which, see the places referred to in 9320 (end), 9380. This worship is what is meant by Aaron's ministering.
Arcana Coelestia 10133
(A)ll worship, to be worship, must spring from the good of love and from the truths of faith.
Arcana Coelestia 10143
[3] But what the Divine worship meant by sacrifices and burnt offerings is must be stated briefly. In particular sacrifices and burnt offerings have meant purification from evils and falsities, and at the same time implantation of goodness and truth, also the joining together of the two, thus regeneration, see 10022, 10053, 10057. With the person in whom these things have been accomplished true worship exists. It does so because purification from evils and falsities consists in refraining from them, steering clear of them, and loathing them; the implantation of goodness and truth consists in thinking and willing what is good and what is true, and in speaking and doing them; and the joining together of the two consists in leading a life composed of them. For when the good and truth residing with a person have been joined together his will is new and his understanding is new, consequently his life is new. When this is how a person is, Divine worship is present in every deed he performs; for at every point the person now has what is Divine in view, respects and loves it, and in so doing worship s it.
[4] The fact that this is the true worship of God is unknown to those who think that all worship consists in acts of adoration and prayer, thus in such things as belong to the mouth and thought, and not in such as belong to deeds flowing from the good of charity and the good of faith. Yet the reality is that in a person offering adoration and prayer the Lord pays attention solely to his heart, that is, to what he is like inwardly so far as love and consequently faith are concerned. If therefore the adoration and prayer do not have these two within them they have no soul and life in them; they are an outward show, like that of toadies and pretenders, who, as is well known, do not even please anyone in this world who is wise.
[5] In short, acting in accord with the Lord's commandments constitutes true worship of Him, indeed constitutes true love and true faith, as may also become clear to anyone who stops to consider the matter. For there is nothing that a person who loves another, and who believes in another, would rather do than to will and to do what that other wills and thinks; his only desire is to know his will and thought, and so what is pleasing to him.
New Jerusalem and Heavenly Doctrine (Chadwick) n. 124
Piety is thinking and speaking piously, giving a lot of time to prayer, also behaving humbly, going regularly to church and listening devoutly to sermons there, frequently each year attending the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and all the other religious observances prescribed by the church. A life of charity, however, is willing and doing good to the neighbour, acting in every task out of justice and equity, out of good and truth, and likewise in every public office. In short, a life of charity consists in performing services.
In such a life the worship of God takes first place, but in the former one second place. Consequently everyone who separates one from the other, living a life of piety and not a life of charity at the same time, does not worship God. He may think about God, yet not be inspired by God, but by himself, for he constantly thinks about himself and gives no thought to the neighbour. If he thinks about the neighbour, he disparages him, if he is not also such as he is. He also thinks of heaven as a reward. As a result his mind is full of the idea of merit, and also self-love, and a contempt for or neglect of performing services, and so of the neighbour, and at the same time a confident belief that he is without guilt. From this it can be established that a life of piety divorced from a life of charity is not a spiritual life, such as should be present in the worship of God. (Compare Matthew 6:7,8).
Divine Love and Wisdom (Dole) n. 13
We may gather how important it is to have a right concept of God from the fact that this concept is the very core of the thinking of anyone who has a religion. All the elements of religion and of worship focus on God; and since God is involved in every element of religion and worship, whether general or particular, unless there is a right concept of God there can be no communication with heaven.
Divine Love and Wisdom 233
What happened was that although the Divinity that had filled all space without being bound by space (see 69-72) also penetrated to the most remote elements of nature, before taking on a human nature the divine inflow into the earthly level was indirect, through the angelic heavens. After taking on the human nature it was direct from Divinity itself. This is why all the world's churches before his coming were representative of spiritual and heavenly realities, while after his coming they became spiritual and heavenly on the earthly level and representational worship was done away with.
Divine Love and Wisdom 335
People believe that because the Lord is to be revered, worshiped, and praised the Lord loves reverence, worship, and praise for his own sake. In fact, he loves them for our sake, because they bring us into a state where something divine can flow in and be felt. This is because by these activities we are removing that focus on self that prevents the inflow and acceptance. The focus on self that is self-love hardens and closes our heart. It is removed by our realization that in our own right we are nothing but evil and that nothing but what is good comes from the Lord. This yields the softening of heart and humility from which reverence and worship flow.
It follows from this that the purpose of the useful functions the Lord provides for himself through us is that he may bless us out of his love; and since this is what he loves to do, our receiving it is the joy of his love.
No one should believe that the Lord is with people who simply worship him. He makes his home with people who do his commandments--that is, his useful functions--and not with the others.
Divine Providence (Rogers) n. 137
From this the nature of coerced worship can be seen and the nature of worship not coerced. Coerced worship is physical worship, lifeless, hazy, and mournful. It is physical because it is a worship of the body and not of the mind; lifeless because it has no life in it; hazy because it is without understanding; and mournful because it lacks any delight of heaven in it.
On the other hand, worship not coerced, when genuine, is spiritual worship, alive, lucid, and joyful. It is spiritual because it has in it a spirit from the Lord; alive because it has in it life from the Lord; lucid because it has in it wisdom from the Lord; and joyful because it has in it heaven from the Lord.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 205
Among people outside the church in early times, the study of correspondences led to forms of idolatry because all things that are visible on earth have a correspondence - not only trees but also animals and birds of every kind, as well as fish, and everything else. Early people involved in the study of correspondences made images that corresponded to things in heaven. They enjoyed these images because the images stood for things related to heaven and the church. They placed these images not only in their temples but also in their homes, not in order to worship them but to be reminded of the heavenly things they meant. In Egypt and elsewhere there were images of calves, oxen, and snakes, as well as children, old people, and young women, because calves and oxen meant the emotions and forces in the earthly self; snakes meant prudence but also the deceitfulness of the senses; children meant innocence and goodwill; old people meant wisdom; and young women meant types of love for the truth; and so on.
When the study of correspondences was wiped out, later generations began worshiping the images and statues erected by the early people. They worshiped them first as sacred objects and then as deities, since they found them in and around temples.
Because of the study of correspondences, the early people had also worshiped in gardens and groves, depending on which species of trees were there. They also worshiped on mountains and hills. Gardens and groves meant wisdom and intelligence; and every tree meant some aspect of wisdom and intelligence. For example, an olive tree meant good actions that come from love, while a grapevine meant the true insights that come from those good actions. A cedar tree meant rational goodness and truth. A mountain meant the highest heaven, and a hill, a heaven below it.
The study of correspondences continued among many in the Middle East even to the time of the Lord's coming, as you can see from the wise ones from the Middle East who came to the Lord when he was born. Therefore a star went before them and they brought gifts with them: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1, 2, 9, 10, 11). The star that went before them meant knowledge from heaven. Gold meant the heavenly goodness; frankincense, the spiritual goodness; and myrrh, the earthly goodness that together form the source of all worship.
There was absolutely no study of correspondences among the Israelite and Jewish nation, although all the aspects of their worship, all the statutes and judgments given to them through Moses, and all the details throughout their Word were correspondences. The reason for this lack was that at heart the people were idolatrous. They had no desire at all to know that any aspect of their worship meant something heavenly or spiritual. They believed that all their rituals were intrinsically holy. If the heavenly and spiritual underpinnings had been revealed to them, they would have not only rejected those underpinnings but also desecrated them. As a result, heaven was so tightly closed to them that they were scarcely aware that eternal life existed.
The truth of this is very clear from the fact that the people did not acknowledge the Lord even though their entire Sacred Scripture had prophesied about him and foretold his coming. They rejected him for one single reason: he taught them about a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. They wanted a Messiah who would lift them above all the nations in the whole world, not some Messiah who was concerned with their eternal salvation.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 291
The First Commandment: There Is to Be No Other God before My Face
These are the words of the first commandment (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7). In their earthly meaning, which is their literal meaning, the most accessible sense is that we must not worship idols; for it goes on to say,
You are not to make yourself a sculpture or any form that is in the heavens above or the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You are not to bow yourself down to them, and you are not to worship them, because I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God. (Exodus 20:4, 5)
The most accessible meaning of this commandment is that we must not worship idols, because before the time [when this commandment was given] and after it right up to the coming of the Lord much of the Middle East had idolatrous worship. What caused the idolatrous worship was that all the churches before the Lord came were symbolic and emblematic. Their symbols and emblems were designed to present divine attributes in different forms and sculpted shapes. When the meanings of these forms were lost, common people began worship ing the forms as gods.
The Israelite nation had this kind of worship in Egypt, as you can see from the golden calf that they worship ed in the wilderness instead of worship ing Jehovah. That type of worship never became foreign to them, as you can see from many passages in both the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word.
True Christian Religion 833
[3] Now, because everything in ancient rituals of worship was symbolic and consisted of nothing but correspondences, they would worship on mountains and hills and also in groves and gardens. Springs of water were considered holy for the same reason. These people made sculptures of horses, cows, calves, lambs, and even birds, fish, and snakes, and placed these in and around their places of worship and also their homes, in a particular configuration depending on what spiritual quality of the church each figure corresponded to, or what it symbolically represented and therefore meant.
Later on, after the study of correspondences was lost, their descendants began to worship the sculptures themselves as something intrinsically holy. These people were not aware that their ancestors of long ago had not regarded the sculptures themselves as being the least bit holy, but instead had only seen them as symbolizing something holy because of what they corresponded to. This was the origin of the idolatrous practices that filled many nations of the world.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) 391
[2] The reason why under the altar signifies under heaven, is that the altar, in the highest sense, signifies the Lord, and, in a relative sense, heaven and the church, inasmuch as the Lord is heaven and the church, for the all of heaven and the church, or the all of love and faith which make them, with angels and men, are from Him, and, consequently, are His; but, in a general sense, the altar signifies all worship of the Lord, and specifically representative worship, such as existed among the sons of Israel. The reason why the altar signifies all worship, is that the worship in that church principally consisted in offering burnt-offerings and sacrifices; for these were offered for every sin and guilt, also from the desire to please Jehovah, - such sacrifices were called eucharistic or free-will, - and also for cleansings of every kind. By burnt-offerings and sacrifices inaugurations were also effected into everything holy pertaining to the church, as is plain from the sacrifices at the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, the consecration of the tabernacle of the congregation, and afterwards of the temple. And because the worship of Jehovah, that is of the Lord, principally consisted in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, therefore, they were offered also daily, namely, every morning and evening, which in one expression was called perpetual, besides [those offered] in great abundance on every feast; hence in the Word, perpetual signifies all representative worship. From these considerations it is evident that worship, and specifically the representative worship of that nation, principally consisted in burnt-offerings and sacrifices; hence it is that the altar upon which they were performed, and which contained them, signifies in the Word all worship in general. By worship is not meant external worship only, but also internal worship, and internal worship embraces every thing of love, and every thing of faith, consequently, every thing constituting the church or heaven with man, in a word, causing the Lord to be in him.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 696
And to those that fear thy name, the small and the great.- That this signifies, and to all those, of whatever religion, who worship the Lord, is evident from the signification of fearing the name of the Lord God, as denoting to worship the Lord (of which presently); and from the signification of the small and the great, as denoting of whatever religion; for the small mean those who know little of the truths and goods of the church, and the great, those who know much, thus those who worship the Lord little and much. For so far as a man knows the truths of faith, and lives according to them, in so far does he worship the Lord, for worship is not from man, but from the truths from good that are in man, since these are from the Lord, and the Lord is in them. Those that fear Thy name, the small and the great, mean all who worship the Lord of whatever religion, because, just previously, mention is made of servants, prophets, and saints, by whom are meant all those within the church who are in truths of doctrine, and in a life according to them. Therefore by those that fear Thy name, the small and the great, are meant all those without the church who worship the Lord according to their religion; for those who worship the Lord, and live in any kind of faith and charity, according to their religion, also fear God's name.
Last Judgment Posthumous (Whitehead) n. 240
[243] They who worship the Lord from love, worship Him from all the truths of faith; therefore the more the truths the fuller and more acceptable is the worship. The reason is, because love excites all the things which have entered from love into the understanding. When the man is in worship only those things appear before him which he then speaks or prays, but all the rest are in vain and not in their series. When love produces truths, then these latter are disposed by the Lord into the form of heaven, and the man then adores the Lord as it were from heaven.
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.”