The Truth: Seen and Heard

by Rev. David R. Simons

He that cometh from above is above all: . . . He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony.  (John 3:31, 32)

The Christian Church is founded on the conviction, expressed by John the Baptist, that the Lord Jesus Christ came from "above" and is "above all." True Christianity acknowledges that the Lord had a heavenly origin and that He testifies in the New Testament from "things seen and heard," that is, that He had an infinite soul and that what He did and taught reveal Divine omniscience and Infinite perception. The Lord Himself confirms the authority from which He speaks saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak that We do know, and testify that We have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (Jn. 3: 11, 12)

The New Christian Church, now to be established on the earth, is founded on the conviction that the same Lord Jesus Christ has come again, as He promised, in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. As "the Spirit of truth (spiritual truth) leading unto all truth," (Jn. 16: 130 this new scripture comes from "heaven" and is "above all," that is, is Divinely inspired and thus superior to all the writings of men. The evidence which backs this claim, like the evidence which confirms the validity of the New Testament, rests on what is "seen and heard," "that he testifieth":

The arcana revealed in the following pages (we read in the work entitled Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Seen and Heard) relate to heaven and hell, and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at this day knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his fife after death, although these are set forth and described in the Word; and many of those born within the church even refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, `Who has come from that world and told use' Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial, which especially prevails with those who have much worldly (learning), should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in faith, it has been granted to me (Emmanuel Swedenborg, 'servant of the Lord,') to associate with angels and to talk with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and what is in the hells, and this for .thirteen years; also from what I have heard and seen I am now permitted to describe these, in the hope that ignorance shay thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated. Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what is meant by the (Second) Coming of .the Lord. (HH 1)

The evidence establishing the First Coming of the Lord is contained in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who also wrote the Book of Revelation. The New Testament is the product of Divine inspiration through men who knew the Lord for less than three years, or were in contact with those who knew Him, who described themselves as "eyewitnesses from the first" and as "having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first . . . ." (Lu. 1: 2-4) And the disciple John adds, "This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." (Jn. 21: 24, 25) And later at the end of the Book of Revelation, he concludes, "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22: 20)

In contrast to the New Testament, the evidence which establishes the truth of the Second Coming of the Lord is contained in more than thirty volumes. The Heavenly Doctrines are the product of Divine inspiration through a man who had contact with the Lord and over twenty-seven years of direct experience in the eternal world of the human spirit, which is the kingdom of the Lord. In these Writings New Churchmen see the same Lord Jesus Christ now speaking "plainly of the Father." (Jn. 16: 25) Swedenborg, the evidence shows, received the Doctrine of the New Church from the mouth of the Lord alone:

. . . That the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, and that He afterwards opened the sight of my spirit and so has introduced me into the spiritual world, and has granted me to behold the heavens and the hells and to converse with angels and spirits, and this now uninterruptedly for many years, I testify in truth; likewise, that from the first day of that call I have not received anything that pertains to the doctrines of the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word. (TCR 779) It has been given me to see (the light of heaven), and from it to perceive distinctly what has come from the Lord, and what from angels. What has come from .the Lord has been written, and what has come from angels has not been written. (AE 1183)

Christianity was based, founded, and confirmed not on the teachings of the Lord alone, but on what He did - on miracles performed, on open demonstrations of His mercy and love. The disciples of John were shown who the Lord is as follows:

Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto Him, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" Jesus answered and said unto them, "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lama walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me." (Matt. 11: 2-6)

The First Christian Church was established by things seen and heard, by miracles which were seen and direct teachings of the Lord which were heard. The Lord used miracles to attract men to Himself so that He could teach them the truth and open their understandings to the light of heaven. In every way He worked to lead men from external things to internal - from the things in this world to those of the world to come. For example, by changing the water to wine in the outer, physical world the Lord drew men to Him so that He could give them the "new wine" of the New Testament and in this way perform the spiritual miracle of changing the external truths of the Old Testament in their minds to the internal truths of the New. Again, by raising Lazarus from natural death and commanding them to release "him and let him go," ( Jn. 11: 44) the Lord on earth filled men's eyes with wonder so that they might be willing to hear His new doctrine and by it be themselves raised from spiritual death, to be released from self-centered living and world-centered thought, that they might "Know the truth" and become free! No one is saved by the sight of miracles, yet everyone can be led by means of them to hear what the Lord has to teach.

The New Christian Church, now made possible by the giving of new Doctrines from heaven, is based, founded, and confirmed not on doctrine alone, and definitely not on miracles, for the Writings teach that miracles and concern for what is externally miraculous is misleading in a rational age and can seduce the church. "Was anyone ever made spiritual by their means?" they ask. (Inv. 46) The Writings of the Second Advent, although they center on clear rational doctrines which appeal to the "self-evidencing reason of love" (Can. Pro.) and to the love of truth for its own sake, are confirmed by actual experience, by things "seen and heard" in the spiritual world. In place of miracles, this new revelation is founded on the experience of a science-oriented mind which was specially prepared and led to receive and rationally understand a body of evidence greater than all miracles and which is calculated to have a deeper impact on the rational mind which understands the laws of the physical universe and something of the workings of the human mind.

In place of miracles, there has at this day taken place a manifestation of the Lord Himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and enlightenment there by means of immediate light from the Lord in such things as are the interior things of the church. But chiefly, the opening of the spiritual sense in the Word, in which the Lord is in His own Divine light. (Coro. Mir. IV) The manifestation of the Lord in Person, and (my) introduction by the Lord into the spiritual world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all miracles.( Inv. 43)

As miracles in the first Christian Church led men to the Lord that they might hear and learn, so in the New Church the remarkable experiences recorded as "Memorable Relations" in the Writings are not ends in themselves, but are to lead to deeper things. To see into the spiritual world, to see heaven and hell and the world of spirits into which each one of us is to come immediately after death, is but an introductory step, an opening of the way to an interior understanding of the Lord, in a way not possible on earth, and how He demonstrates the fullness of His love and the depth of His wisdom in the eternal world for which each one of us was created. The psychological, dramatic, spectacular, and even at times humorous experiences of the Revelator in this after-death environment, because they are new, different, and totally unique from anything ever written, have the power to attract the curious and to stir wonder in all who take the time to read them. Yet like miracles their primary purpose is to lead men to the Lord, lead them to hear His voice, perceive His foresight and His providence, and to learn of Him the way of regeneration and eternal life. As the revelator was given to perceive behind what he saw the love and wisdom of the Lord, so all who would be New Churchmen must learn to penetrate the external appearances of the spiritual world and see the living laws which apply to their own spiritual lives right here on earth. Sight is to lead to hearing and obedience. The rational sight of these things in the Writings is to lead us to hear the voice of the Lord, to recognize and perceive Him as the same Lord revealed in the New Testament, and to follow Him in a New Christian life, in which evils are shunned and use made the center of our lives. "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life." (Jn. 10: 27, 28)

By sight and hearing each one of us knows what we know. By sight and hearing we sense realities outside of ourselves. By these twin senses we come to know the reality of the natural world, and by twin senses of a higher kind - by the internal sight of understanding and the internal hearing of perception - we come to know the reality of spiritual things.

Nothing can look into itself; but it must be something more internal or higher that thinks about it, for this can look into it. For example: the ear cannot know, and still less perceive the speech that it receives into itself: this is done by a more interior hearing. The ear merely discerns articulate sounds or words: it is the interior hearing that apprehends what is said, and then it is an interior sight of mental view that perceives it, and in this way there is through the hearing a perception of the meaning of the speech. The case is similar with the things of sight . . . .( AC 1953)

The whole purpose of the Word, the whole purpose of Divine Revelation is to bring the Lord present before these higher senses to be seen and heard. "Life consists in the exercise of sensation, for without there is no life, and such as is the faculty of sensation, such is the life, a fact that anyone may observe." (AC 322)

Sight and hearing are the senses which the Lord chose to emphasize, since they relate first to the understanding and then to the will. The man of the spiritual Church is to enter first with his understanding into spiritual things, and then with his will.

Those in heaven have more exquisite senses, that is, keener sight and hearing . . . than when in the world; for they see in the light of heaven, which surpasses by many degrees the light of the world; and they hear by means of a spiritual atmosphere which likewise surpasses by many degrees the earthly atmosphere . . . . Moreover, the outward sight (of angels) corresponds to their inner sight or understanding; for with them one sight so flows into the other as to act as one with it; and this gives them their great keenness of vision. In like manner, their hearing corresponds to their perception, which pertains both to the understanding and to the will, and in consequence they perceive in the tone and words of one speaking the most minute things of his affection and thought . . . . But the rest of the senses with the angels are less exquisite than the senses of seeing and hearing, for the reason that seeing and hearing serve their intelligence and wisdom, and the rest do not. (HH 462)

Although sight is a superior sense in that it can reach out and sense things untold distances away, being aware of the starry universe, and can in a flash absorb a scene which would take hours to describe adequately, still hearing is the more powerful of the two senses, since it directly stirs the will.

The nature of hearing is to transfer into the thought of another what one speaks from his own thought; and from the thought to transfer it into his will; and from this into act: hence ‘to hear' (when used in the Word means) to obey? (AC 5017) When things which are heard penetrate to the interiors, they are also changed into something like sight, for what is heard is seen interiorly; and therefore by "hearing" (in the Word) . . . there is also signified that which is signified by "sight" namely, that which is of the understanding, and also that which is of faith; but the hearing at the same time persuades that the case is so, and affects not only the intellectual part of man, but also his will part, and causes him to will that which he sees. Hence it is that `hearing' signifies the understanding of a thing, and at the same time obedience; and in the spiritual sense, faith in the will .... Moreover such is the circle of things in man, that whatever enters by the ear and eye, or by hearing and sight, passes into his understanding and through the understanding into the will, and from the will into act. (AC 3869)

It is a curious anomaly that the very evidence from things "seen and heard" which is given to confirm both the New Testament and the Heavenly Doctrines have proved unacceptable to a rational, science-oriented age. As the Lord said, "Therefore speak I to them by parables; because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive; for the people's heart is waxed gross, and with ears they have heard dully, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart." (Matt. 13: 13-17; Jn. 12: 40)

How the precious truths of the Heavenly Doctrines are received is clear from the following Memorable Relation from the work The True Christian Religion:

I was once taken up as to my spirit into the angelic heaven . . . and some of the wise ones there came to me and asked, `What news from the earth?'

I answered, "The news is that the Lord has revealed mysteries, which in excellence surpass all the mysteries revealed from the beginning of the church. . ."

They asked, "What are they?"

I replied, "They are the following: (1) That in each thing and in all things in the Word there is a spiritual sense . . . . (2) The correspondences of which the spiritual sense consists are disclosed . . . . (3) A revelation respecting the life of men after death. (4) Respecting love truly conjugial and its spiritual delights. . .

The angels were exceedingly delighted with (this news), but perceiving a sadness in me, they asked, "Why are you sad?"

I said, "Because these mysteries that are now revealed by the Lord, although they surpass in excellence and dignity all the knowledge hitherto divulged, are nevertheless regarded on earth as of no value"

At this the angels were astonished, .and besought the Lord to permit them to look down upon the world; and they looked down and behold, mere darkness was there ....

When these (Heavenly Doctrines) were let down by the angels into assemblies of learned . . . a murmur of many voices was heard . . . . "What is this? Is it anything? What matters it whether we know these things or not? Are they not mere products of .the brain? . . ." (and) a hostile murmur (was heard saying,) "Work miracles and we will believe."

I answered, "Are not these things miracles?"

They replied, "They are not" . . .

At that moment I heard it said to them from heaven, "If you believe not Moses and the Prophets, that is, the Word of the Lord, you will not believe on account of miracles . . . any more than they believed when with their own eyes they saw the miracles wrought by the Lord Himself when He was in the world. . . "

I foresee that many who read the Memorable Relations annexed to the chapters in this work will believe them to be inventions of the imagination. But I affirm in truth that they .are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard . . . . For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach those things which will belong to His New Church, which is meant by the "New Jerusalem" in the Apocalypse..." (TCR 848, 849, 851)

-New Church Life 1978;97:1-7

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