IV.
THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT—SHEŌL, HADES, GEHENNA, AND THE LAKE OF FIRE.
I HAVE said that while the Old doctrine of hell is sensuous, and in agreement with a sensuous philosophy and a sensuous interpretation of Scripture, the New is eminently spiritual, and in harmony with the higher spiritual philosophy and with the spiritual interpretation of the Word.
For the essential difference between the Old and the New doctrine, lies in this: That the Old represents hell as a place, created by the Lord at the time of man's creation, previous to his lapse into sin, and for the express purpose of tormenting sinners; while the New declares it to be a certain internal state, wrought out in freedom through the voluntary infraction of the soul's own laws, or the laws of our higher life. Your child may reside in the same place with yourself—beneath the shelter of the same roof, and surrounded by the same beautiful objects. But by a course of willful disobedience or unreasonable self-indulgence, that child may have destroyed its health, impaired its senses, and rendered itself miserable and wretched generally. And until its habits are changed and its health renewed, it will find rest and comfort in no place however beautiful.
Both hell and heaven, according to the New Theology, are within men. They are not places but states of life. But in the other world, these states project themselves outwardly, making all the surroundings of each spirit a perfect mirror, as it were, of himself;—reflecting with mathematical precision his own affections and thoughts. Heaven is a state the very opposite of hell as opposite as day is to night, light to darkness, health to sickness, love to hate, good to evil. The essential life of heaven, is the life of disinterested love—love to the Lord and the neighbor. The essential life of hell, is the life of self-love; and this is real hatred of the neighbor. Heaven is a state in which the understanding is illumined by the light of truth; hell is a state in which it is obscured by the darkness of falsity. Heaven is a state of spiritual health, order, peace and joy unutterable; hell is a state of spiritual sickness, disorder, unrest and comparative sorrow. In the most exalted heavenly state, every one loves others even more than he loves himself; in hell, and in all hellish states, every one hates others in comparison with himself. Heaven is a state of humility, self-forgetfulness, and of sweet and serene trust in the Lord; hell is a state of pride, self-seeking, and inward alienation from and opposition to the Lord. Heaven is a state of the most delightful freedom, in which every one finds his highest gratification in the performance of good uses from love to the Lord and his neighbor; hell is a state of spiritual thraldom, in which no useful act is performed from love of or delight in the use, but only by compulsion, as a slave works under the lash.
It should be said, however, that the love of self is evil and makes man an infernal only when it is the supreme and ruling love. Then it is out of its place and the soul is in disorder. In its right place, which is a state of subordination and complete subjection to the nobler love of heaven, it is good and useful. Says Swedenborg:
"These three loves [the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self] are related to each other like the three regions of the body, the highest of which is the head, the intermediate the chest and abdomen, while the legs and feet and soles of the feet form the third. When the love of heaven forms the head, the love of the world the chest and abdomen, and the love of self the feet with the soles of the feet, then man is in a perfect state according to creation, because the two lower loves then subserve the highest as the body and all its parts subserve the head." (True Christian Religion, 403.)
But when the love of self or of the world is as the head—is supreme—then the true order is reversed; the man is turned, as it were, upside down; the love of heaven is as the feet, and he tramples on the laws of justice and neighborly love as often as his ruler (self-love) dictates.
Such, according to Swedenborg is the essential nature of heaven and hell. They are both within the human soul, and consist in essentially opposite states of life—opposite kinds of love—resulting by inevitable sequence, in character, conduct, modes of government, and an outward or objective world, as different as are the loves that rule in these two kingdoms respectively.
Surely there is nothing unreasonable in all this. But how does it agree with the teachings of Scripture? That is the question for present consideration. And the first thing that claims attention, is the meaning of the word Hell. To ascertain this, we must go to the original languages of the Bible.
SHEŌL AND HADES.
The Hebrew word translated Hell, is Sheōl. And Sheōl, according to its primary literal import, means the under world, or a vast subterranean place pervaded by thick darkness. Hence this word is sometimes translated the grave, as in Genesis xxxvii. 35; xlii. 38. The corresponding Greek word is Hades. This has the same meaning as Sheōl, and is always used instead of it in the Greek version of the Old Testament. And as further evidence of their identity of import, we find the passage from the sixteenth Psalm, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell" etc., quoted in the Acts of the apostles (ch. ii.). And in the Old Testament the Hebrew word for Hell in this passage is Sheōl, and in the New it is Hades,—proving that these words have one and the same meaning.
Such being the plain literal import of the Hebrew Sheōl, and its Greek equivalent Hades, some theologians have contended that our English word hell ought to be restricted in its meaning to the natural world; for, according to the strictly literal import both of the Greek and Hebrew word, it means simply the grave, or a low and dark place—a place underground; and has no reference whatever to the condition of the wicked in the other world, or to anything beyond the natural realm.
And if the Bible is to be literally interpreted—if it contains no meaning beyond that which lies upon the surface, and which is obvious to the merely natural or sensuous mind, these theologians certainly have the best of the argument. What answer can the literalist consistently give? For how, according to his theory, is this word hell made to refer to the condition of the wicked in the other world? Why should it not be restricted in its meaning, to that which it literally denotes, viz., the grave, or a dark subterranean region?
Yet there are insuperable difficulties which those who contend for such a limitation of the meaning of this word, have to encounter. For, to be consistent in their hermeneutics, they should limit the meaning of the term heaven in precisely the same way. They should insist on restricting the meaning of this word also to the realm of nature; and should maintain that it has no reference to the condition of the righteous in the other world—for, in its obvious literal sense it has not.
The word in the original Hebrew, translated heaven in our English version, is shâmayim; and the literal signification of this is, the firmament, or the space above the earth. It comes (so the best linguists tell us) from an obsolete root, shâmâ, whose meaning in the cognate Arabic language is, to be high, or lifted up. And to this Arabic radical lexicographers refer the Hebrew term as denoting an elevated locality—a high place. The Greek equivalent of this Hebrew word is ouranos, which is also translated by our English heaven, and means the same as shâmayim; that is, the space above the earth, or the vast concave that surrounds the earth. And according to most philologists it comes from the Greek radical orao, which means to see—referring to the space above or around the earth, where by means of the sun's light objects are visible.
We find, therefore, that the words heaven and hell, which occur so often in the sacred Volume, refer—in their plain, obvious, literal sense, as gathered from the Hebrew and Greek terms—to merely natural localities; one, to a place that is high, or to a region above the earth, involving also the idea or possibility of clear-seeing; the other, to a place that is low, or to a region beneath the earth, involving also the idea of darkness, or great difficulty in seeing. And if the literalists, or those who deny that the Scripture everywhere contains a spiritual sense, would be consistent, they should restrict the meaning of both these words to the natural world—and to things without, not within the soul of man. For all good Biblical scholars know that neither heaven nor hell, according to the literal import of their equivalent Greek and Hebrew terms, conveys an idea of anything above the realm of nature.
But there is abundant Scripture evidence that these terms are not to be thus restricted in their meaning. There is evidence that they refer to states and conditions of two widely different classes of people in the spiritual world. Thus the seer of Patmos tells us of persons and things that he saw in heaven, when he was "in the spirit," or when "a door was opened" to him in heaven. Surely the myriads of angels whom he beheld, were not seen with his natural eyes, nor in that region of natural space above our earth. No: John's spiritual eyes were opened, and this enabled him to see the beings and objects of the spiritual world.
The Apostle Paul tells us that, on a certain occasion, he was "caught up to the third heaven," and heard there things which natural language cannot express. How "caught up"? Was the apostle's material body lifted through natural space into the upper regions of the air? No one, I presume, believes this. No one supposes that his corporeal part underwent any change of place. No doubt there was to the apostle the appearance of being suddenly lifted up; but this appearance was caused by, and was in perfect correspondence with, a change which took place at that time in the condition of the apostle's own mind. It was produced by a sudden opening of his spiritual senses even to the third degree.[1] No one ever was or ever can be carried to heaven—the heaven of which the Bible speaks—by being elevated bodily to the upper regions of space;—no, not even if he were lifted higher than the stars.
Then in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, we find the rich man represented as alive and in hell after the death and burial of his material body; which proves conclusively that the hell of which the Bible speaks, is not any region of natural space, but the state or condition of the wicked—and a state, too, in which they find themselves after the death of the body.
How, then, are we to arrive at the true Scripture import of the terms heaven and hell?—for in their obvious literal sense, they are both used to designate natural localities—one a high and illumined, the other a low and dark place. According to what principle or law is their true meaning to be elicited?
Swedenborg answers this question, as no one else has ever answered it. (Let the reader, if he would appreciate the full force of the answer, bear in mind that the Bible everywhere represents heaven and hell as opposite kingdoms—opposite as light and darkness, love and hate, truth and falsity, righteousness and sin, happiness and misery)—He tells us that the written Word is composed throughout upon the principle of correspondence; that, between all natural and spiritual things, there is a correspondence like that existing between the body and the soul; and that the Sacred Scripture, therefore, in each and all its parts, contains both a spiritual and a natural sense, which stand related like the spiritual and the natural worlds, or like the soul and body of man. The spiritual sense is as the soul; the natural sense, as the body. As the body's life is from the indwelling soul or spirit, so the life of every part of the written Word is from the spiritual sense. The body of man without the soul, has no life; neither is there life in the letter of the Word when divorced from its inner spiritual meaning. It is by virtue of their spiritual sense that the Lord's words are spirit and life; for he says: "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And the apostle also clearly recognizes the same truth when he says: "The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life."
Agreeably to this doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, therefore, the words heaven and hell have each a natural sense such as I have already explained, and a spiritual sense with which the natural corresponds. Natural space corresponds to spiritual or mental state. Hence all words of Scripture, which in their natural sense refer to space, in their spiritual sense denote states of the mind. Accordingly there is natural elevation, and spiritual elevation; elevation in space and elevation in state. And the term heaven, which in its natural sense refers to elevation in space, in its spiritual sense denotes elevation of state;—that exalted condition of mind and heart, that state of clear perception of whatever is beautiful and true, and of disinterested love for all that is good and right, in which the angels are.
So, too, there is natural lowness, and spiritual lowness; the former having reference to space, the latter to state. And the term hell, which in its natural sense denotes a low place or a region under ground, in its spiritual sense denotes a low groveling state of mind;—that state of carnal desire and selfish craving and obscure perception and blunted moral sensibility, in which the devils are.
We often use the words high and low in their spiritual sense in familiar discourse; and always when we have occasion to apply them to moral or human qualities, though in their primary literal signification they have reference only to natural space. We employ them to designate superiority and inferiority of character, or of mental and moral attributes. Thus we speak familiarly of a high order of intellect, of a high-minded man, of lofty souls, superior worth, exalted wisdom and love. We say of an individual that he stands high in the community, high in the church or in the state, that he is above others, etc., when our meaning is that he is spiritually or mentally above them—superior in wisdom, skill, integrity, and moral worth. And equally often in familiar discourse is the word low used in a similar way. As when it is said of a mean and selfish man, that he is a person of a low mind, low desires, low motives, or that he is a low fellow. Indeed, the correspondence between the natural and spiritual import of these terms, is so obvious that it has never been lost sight of. Every one perceives it from common influx.
The Lord is called the Most High in Scripture, and is said to dwell on high, above the earth, and above the heavens. Surely it is not with any reference to natural locality that such things are predicated of the omnipresent One. No rational mind thinks of interpreting such language literally; for no one thinks of localizing the Divine Being. He is in all space—in the depths beneath as truly as in the heights above—yet is Himself without space. But on account of the infinite purity and excellence of his character—because, in respect to the human attributes of love, wisdom and power, He is infinitely exalted above men and angels, He is said to be above all the earth, above the heavens, the Most High, etc.
Yes:—The Scripture has everywhere a deeper meaning than that of the letter. It was given, not to teach us natural but spiritual truth. And it is by means of the law or rule of correspondence now revealed, that its true spiritual meaning is to be elicited. Space corresponds to state. And the words high and low, therefore, which in their natural sense refer to opposite regions of space, in their spiritual sense denote opposite mental states—opposite kinds of love. The Lord is spiritually the Most High. Therefore those who draw near to Him spiritually, who become like Him in the spirit and temper of their minds, are spiritually exalted. And because all the angels are images and likenesses of Himself—because they resemble Him in their love, wisdom and works—because their affections, thoughts, motives, purposes are all pure, noble and elevated, therefore they are said to dwell on high; or, what is equivalent, in heaven.
And on the other hand those who are spiritually most remote from the Lord, who are most unlike Him in disposition and character, whose aims are altogether selfish, whose affections, thoughts, motives and actions are low and ignoble, and contrary to the nature of the Divine Love, and who are, therefore, in a state the very opposite to that of the angels, are said to dwell in a low place, beneath the earth; or what is the same, in hell.
I have said, moreover, that the Greek word translated heaven, involves the idea of light, being derived from a verb which signifies to see; and that the original word translated hell, involves the idea of darkness, being composed of two words, which together mean impossible to see, or where one cannot see. Here, again, let that magic Key, the law of Correspondence, be applied; and observe the result.
Light and darkness, like all other objects, have a two-fold signification—an outer and an inner, or a natural and a spiritual meaning. Light in its natural sense, is the light of the natural world, which affects our natural organs of vision. But spiritual light is of a different nature, though in perfect correspondence with the natural. It is the light of the spiritual world; and although in its essence it is divine truth, it appears before the eyes of the angels as light. They see by means of it. This light proceeds from the Lord who is the Sun of the spiritual world—a Sun that appears to the angels immeasurably more brilliant than the sun of our world appears to us. It is the light of this spiritual Sun which illumines the minds of both angels and men. This is "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
And as natural darkness is the absence of natural light, so spiritual darkness is the absence of spiritual light. But there are two causes of natural darkness; one is the absence of light, and the other is a diseased state of the organs of vision. The darkness from the first of these causes is seldom of long duration; and if the organs of vision are preserved in a healthy condition, we shall be able to see when the light comes. But the darkness produced by the second cause is, indeed, deplorable. However brightly the light may shine, it is (if the eye-sight be gone) as if the sun were blotted out. The brightness of noon-day is as midnight darkness to us.
So, likewise, there are two corresponding causes of spiritual darkness. One is, the absence of truth, or spiritual light. But this kind of darkness may soon be dispersed. For a person may be ignorant, and therefore in spiritual darkness yet he may preserve his mind in such an honest and healthy condition, that he will be able to understand and receive the truth so soon as it is presented to him. But there is another and far more deplorable kind of spiritual darkness. It is that which results from disobedience to the known laws of the heavenly life. It is the darkness into which those fall, who, under the influence of selfish and evil loves, confirm themselves in various false ideas contrary to the revealed Word of the Lord. For everywhere and always is it true, that "he who doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved." Persons who, under the prompting influence of infernal loves, disregard and trample on the laws of their inner life, and so obscure their moral perceptions, come at last to hate the light of truth, and shun it as owls and bats shun the light of day. Their understanding becomes diseased; their mental eye, adjusted to error. And however bright the truth may shine, they do not see it. To them it appears as falsity. They "put darkness for light and light for darkness." Therefore the Lord says: "If thine eye be single [or more correctly, sound, healthy] thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil [i. e., unsound, diseased], thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt. vi. 22, 23.
Agreeably to this, Swedenborg often tells us that the denizens of heaven dwell in light inconceivably more brilliant than the light of this world; while those in hell live in great darkness—for their understandings are darkened by innumerable falsities originating in evil lusts. Milton had a perception of this great truth when he sang:
"He that hath light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun,
Himself is his own dungeon."
There is a great darkness within all evil spirits, and this produces the darkness without; for in the other world everything without is but the reflection, under the great law of correspondence, of the state or quality of life within. But evil spirits do not appear to themselves to be in such darkness as they really are. Neither do evil men, whose understandings are darkened by falsities originating in evil loves. They even imagine themselves in clearer light than others. And so do the devils think they see far better than the angels. But their light is the light of fatuity—the dim (yet mercifully accommodated) light of perverted natures—which, compared with the light that shines in heaven, is as the light from ignited coals compared with the splendor of the noon-day sun.
From what has been said, and from the correspondence of light and darkness, we may see why the Divine Saviour—the embodiment and living manifestation of the Truth—calls himself "the light of the world"; and why He says to those who had not previously known the truth, but had nevertheless kept themselves in a state to receive it, "They that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." We may see also why it is said that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"; and of the wicked, that "they walk in darkness," and will finally be "cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth."
All who do not, while here on earth, resist and overcome their evil loves, find themselves in that "outer darkness" when they enter the other world; for through the indulgence of their evil lusts they shut out the light of God and the things of his wisdom from their minds. They are, therefore, excluded from the kingdom of heaven, having no heaven, and no love for the things which constitute heaven, in their hearts. Whatever truths they have ever known, they now reject and turn away from, because such truths condemn their evil loves. And so they immerse themselves altogether in falsities, for these are in agreement with their evils. Hence there are endless strifes and bickerings among them; for each one fights for his own falsity, and calls it truth. And the jarring discord and angry disputes among those who are in falsities, joined also with mutual hatred, derision and contempt, are what the gnashing of teeth corresponds to, and what it, therefore, spiritually denotes.
GEHENNA AND THE LAKE OF FIRE.
But the Bible speaks of a fire in the great Hereafter—of the fire of hell, the everlasting fire, a furnace of fire; a lake burning with fire and brimstone, etc. And in this hell-fire, or lake of fire, it is said that the wicked will have their part. And the rich man in the parable is represented as saying, "I am tormented in this flame;"—and this, after he had died and was buried.
I presume few intelligent Christians now-a-days think of interpreting such language according to the strict sense of the letter—as it was interpreted a hundred years ago. They will tell you that this language is figurative, though none of them may be able to tell precisely what was meant to be conveyed by it. But Swedenborg, in his great doctrine of Correspondence, has furnished the true key to its meaning. He has given us the spiritual meaning of hell-fire, or the Gehenna of fire, and told us what it is in the human soul that fire corresponds to.
But as the literal sense is the foundation of the spiritual, it is necessary always to give careful attention to this first.
In the original Greek, Gehenna is the word translated hell, where the fire of hell, or the hell of fire, is spoken of. And Gehenna is a Hebrew word transplanted into the Greek, with but little variation in its form. It is composed of two other Hebrew words. Gai or Gē, which means a valley, and Hinnom, the name of a man. The literal meaning, therefore, of Gehenna is, the valley of Hinnom. This valley was south-east of, and near to Jerusalem. The brook Kedron ran through it. Here the Jews at one time practiced the most impious idolatry. They had an image dedicated to Moloch, to which they offered in sacrifice not only bulls, lambs, rams, etc., but even their own children, who were placed in the arms of the image previously heated by a fire within, and thus were quickly destroyed. On this account the place subsequently came to be regarded with such abhorrence, that it was made the common receptacle of all the filth and rubbish of the city. The dead bodies of animals as well as of the most notorious criminals, were there thrown into one common heap. And a fire was kept continually burning to prevent the atmosphere from becoming pestilential—the worms, meanwhile, reveling in a luxurious repast upon the remains of the rubbish which the fire failed to consume.
Here we have the primary, literal signification of the Gehenna of fire, which our translators have rendered hell-fire. It means the fire that burned in that loathsome valley of Hinnom. And as the last punishment and disgrace of condemned criminals was, to cast their dead bodies into that valley or that fire, the place came to be used as an appropriate symbol of the condition of those in the other world, who had violated, and persisted in violating, the laws of eternal love and justice revealed in the Divine Word.
But what is the precise spiritual meaning of this hell-fire, or Gehenna of fire, as elicited by Swedenborg's grand Key—the rule of Correspondence?' And we must never forget that the spiritual meaning of Scripture, if we can ascertain what that really is, is its true meaning. For the Lord has himself declared that his words "are spirit and life."
What, then, is the spiritual correspondent of fire? Swedenborg answers, "Love." Love, he says, is spiritual fire or heat. Love is life; and every man, therefore, has some kind of love, because he has life. To wholly deprive him of love, would be to extinguish the vital spark—yes, to annihilate him. Love is the motive power in whatever a man thinks, wills, says or does. As heat is the proximate cause of all activity, germination, expansion and growth in the natural world, so love is the cause of all activity, germination, expansion and growth in the moral or spiritual realm. Deprived of all love, a man would be like the earth deprived of all heat—unproductive and dead. While the more passionately he loves any object or being—it may be a woman, it may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it may be civil or military glory—the more alive and active he is. See how the lower kinds of love—the purely selfish and worldly—the love of gold or glory, incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness! And the higher and nobler kinds—loves purer and more angelic—are the springs of action in all men's higher and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve and bless mankind. Take away all love from human hearts, and what would men do then? And the less passionately one loves, the more sluggish he is in thought and action—the less is he alive. So obvious is it that love is the quickener and enlivener of the human soul, the very fire of every man's life. And the character of each one, therefore, or the quality of his life, is according to the nature of this fire.
The correspondence between natural and spiritual fire, or natural and spiritual heat, is placed beyond a doubt when we reflect upon the fact that the body grows warm in proportion as any kind of love is enkindled or intensified in the soul. The love may be impure and devilish, such as those feel who are full of anger or revenge; still it produces bodily heat; the face reddens and the circulation is quickened. Again, the body grows cold as love departs, or as its activity ceases. All of which proves that there exists, between natural heat or fire and spiritual heat or love, a relation like that between cause and effect. And this kind of relation is what Swedenborg means by Correspondence.
It is for the same reason, also, that the bodies of children and young persons are usually warmer than those of the aged. They have more love in their hearts, or their love is more active and this quickens the circulation of their blood. For a similar reason, again, we call persons whose hearts are full of love and sympathy, warm-hearted; and those who seem to have no love for anybody, cold-hearted. Then how often do we hear Christians pray that the Lord would kindle in their hearts a heavenly fire! And sometimes they pray that He would warm them with his love. For the same reason we hear it said of an angry man, especially if his anger breaks forth in deeds of violence, that he is inflamed, burns with anger, is all on fire, etc. And does not the internal fire at such times manifest itself in the countenance as well as in the gestures and tones of the voice?
Furthermore, the wise man says: "A hot mind is a burning fire." And the inspired Psalmist calls the Lord "a consuming fire"; and says that "a fire goeth before Him, and burneth up his enemies round about Him." Does any one believe that the Lord is literally a consuming fire? or that He literally burns up his enemies? No: This language, like all of the inspired Word, is the language of correspondence. It contains a spiritual meaning. And in this, which is its true meaning, it expresses the intensity of the Divine Love, and its effect upon the wicked. Those who are in states of opposition to the Lord, change his love in themselves into its opposite; just as the deadly night-shade changes the sweet dews and sunshine into poison. They cannot receive his love as it is, because of their own state. They, feel it as something wrathful, fiery, burning. To them it is as a consuming fire; for they change its nature at the moment of receiving it. In its origin all love is pure and good; for it is all from Him who is Love itself. But its quality or nature is changed in the recipient subjects. (See Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, n. 569.)
Now there are in general two very different and even opposite kinds of love. There is a love of the Lord and the neighbor, which is good and there is a love of self and the world, which, when it reigns supreme in the heart, is evil, and prompts to all kinds of wickedness. And one or the other of these loves bears rule in every man, spirit, or angel, and constitutes the very fire of his life. Good men and angelic spirits live in the former, and wicked men and evil spirits live in the latter kind of love. There is, therefore, a heavenly and a hellish love; or, speaking in the language of correspondence, there is a heavenly fire and a hell fire—the term fire denoting the love or delight which constitutes the life.
"Infernal fire," says Swedenborg, "is the love of self and the world therefore it is every lust which springs from these loves; for lust is love in its continuity, since a man continually lusts after what he loves; and it is likewise delight, for what a man loves or lusts after, he perceives as delightful when he obtains it; nor is heart-felt delight communicated to him from any other source.
"Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight which spring from the love of self and the world as from their fountain. The evils originating in these two loves, are contempt of others, enmity and hostility against those who do not favor them, envy, hatred and revenge, and as a consequence of these, savageness and cruelty. And in regard to the Divine, they consist in the denial, and hence in the contempt, mocking, and reviling of the holy things belonging to the church; and after death, when man becomes a spirit, these evils are turned into anger and hatred against those holy things. . . . These are the things signified by fire in the Word, where the wicked and the hells are treated of."—Heaven and Hell, n. 570.
The supreme love of self, therefore, according to the New Theology, together with all the unholy passions and malignant feelings which proceed from it, and the infernal delight felt in the indulgence of filthy lusts, is what is meant by hell-fire in the true spiritual sense. This is what the Gehenna of fire corresponds to; for the delight arising from the gratification of mean, base, and purely selfish desires, is a flame supported by that heap of spiritual filth and rubbish, which renders the heart of man unclean.
From what has now been said, the meaning of that "lake of fire burning with brimstone" spoken of in the Revelation, in which "the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars" shall have their part, is sufficiently obvious. Brimstone corresponds to the filthy lusts of the natural man. These, through unbridled indulgence, feed and support the flame of infernal love, as brimstone feeds and supports the flame of natural fire. Such lusts are spiritual brimstone.
Those, therefore, who are immersed in evil concupiscences originating in the love of self, are in precisely the state which corresponds to being in a "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." Such a lake is a perfect symbol, framed under the law of correspondence, of the spiritual condition of the wicked. Hence it is said that, in the great Hereafter, they will have their part in this lake. They are in it now and here, but not so entirely as they will be then and there.
But a smoke is said to issue from that lake. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." What does this mean?
If the fire and the brimstone are not to be literally interpreted, neither is the smoke. If the former are symbols of something spiritual, the latter should be so likewise. And so, indeed, it is.
We know it is the tendency of all infernal passions and propensities originating in the love of self, to darken the understanding in spiritual things;—to obscure our perceptions of what is just and true and good. While the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer becomes his moral vision, the keener his perception of the true and right upon questions involving the higher and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we read: "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from God." "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light." Which texts conspire to prove that purity of purpose and the faithful doing of the truth, are indispensable to clearness of mental vision upon subjects of profoundest interest. But where the love of self is supreme, and there is no regard for God or duty, and no respect for the great laws of love and justice, there the understanding is darkened; there the moral perceptions are obscured, and the true and right are not seen. As saith the inspired penman: "The sun and the air are darkened by the smoke of the abyss."
From this we may see what is meant in the spiritual sense by "the smoke of the pit," and the smoke that "ascendeth up for ever and ever." It is that darkened understanding, that mental obscurity which results from the fire of a supremely selfish love, which is the fire of hell. And in the other world where all outward appearances correspond to internal states, a cloud of smoke actually appears round about infernal societies when they are seen in heavenly light.
Thus we see that the doctrine announced by Swedenborg concerning the nature of hell, however it differs from the literal teaching of the Bible, is in perfect agreement with the teaching of its spiritual sense. No candid mind can deny that it is, indeed, the very doctrine of the Bible on this subject, and in harmony with the whole scope of its teaching as well as with all we know of the wisdom of God and the nature of man.
Then look at its obvious, practical tendency. By showing hell to be a state instead of a place, it teaches every one to look within himself, at his own heart; to examine carefully his dominant love, his ends and aims in life, his ruling principles of action. It teaches us, moreover, what that state is: and that those, and those only, go to hell, who carry in their bosoms the loves that rule in hell; and therefore that those only escape it, who resist and overcome these loves. It shows us that only those shun hell, who shun as sins against God the indulgence of the dispositions and loves of hell;—who shun, from religious principle, all wicked arts and devices, all base and dishonest actions, all falsehood, fraud, deceit, revenge and hate, all dispositions and actions that tend to separate us from God and heaven and bring us into fellowship with devils. It teaches further, that if we do not, here on earth, strive to do the Heavenly Father's will, and so vanquish within us the loves of hell, we shall carry those loves with us into the other world, where they will burst forth with quenchless rage.
Thus the practical tendency of this doctrine is good, and only good. It tends to make men less regardful of self, and more regardful of God and duty;—more honest and sincere in their conduct, more kind and generous in their feelings, more correct in their principles, more exalted in their aims, more pure in heart and life.
- ↑ According to Swedenborg, man is endowed with spiritual senses, which are ordinarily closed during his sojourn in the flesh. Yet these senses may be and sometimes are opened during his abode on earth; and when opened, he is intromitted into the spiritual world, and sees the objects and hears the sounds of that world as plainly as with his natural senses he sees and hears the objects and sounds of the natural world. And if the spiritual senses are opened to the third or inmost degree (for there are three degrees to the mind corresponding to the three angelic heavens) the individual is thereby intromitted into the third or highest heaven. This, Swedenborg tells us, is the way in which he was admitted into heaven while on earth. And it was the way in which Paul was "caught up."