Inside Off The Left Eye

Religious Doctrine, The Goodness of Faith, And Freedom | NCE Spotlight

Episode Summary

In heaven, do people have faith? Do they argue over beliefs there? You might think everyone in heaven must believe the same thing, or think the same way about things, but Swedenborg found that the reality is quite different. We explore what distinguishes people and communities in the afterlife right now Inside Off The Left Eye.

Episode Notes

Featured quotations from Emanuel Swedenborg's Secrets of Heaven:

2799:5

In Hosea: I will strike a pact with them on that day—with the wild animal of the field, and with the bird in the heavens and the creeping animal of the ground. And bow and sword and war I will break off from the earth, and I will make them lie down securely. (Hosea 2:18) This is about the Lord’s kingdom. Breaking bow, sword, and war means that no one there fights over doctrine or truth.

3242:1

Here is how matters stand with a person who focuses on the truth taught by faith: None are allowed into the Lord’s kingdom but those who have the goodness taught by faith, because the goodness taught by faith has to do with life. A religious life stays with us [after death], but religious doctrine does not, unless it is integrated into our life. Still, people who focus on the truth of faith (that is, who champion faith and describe it as essential, because that is how they have been taught) but live good lives (that is, are Christian at heart, not just on their lips) are in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. 

2873

For this reason, we are all distinguished from each other in the next life according to our type of freedom. To put the same thing another way, we are distinguished according to what we love and are affected by. Consequently, we are distinguished according to the pleasures of our life, which is the same as saying we are distinguished according to our life.