n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 3
and acting from the will, he has from the Most High or from the Divine.” Yet
it adds:
But a person’s thinking falsely and acting evilly comes from the form hehas impressed
upon himself, while his thinking truly and acting well is fromthe form he has
received from the Lord. For it is known that one and the samepower and energy
produces different motions according to the configurationsin the intermediates and
the extremes. Thus in a human being, life from theDivine produces diverse thoughts
and actions, according to the forms. (Arcana Coelestia 5259.1-2, emphasis added)
From these passages we can see, again, that even as Swedenborg squarely
faces the reality that all life and power are the Lord’s, he nevertheless concludes
that we are able to choose evil. Our freedom includes the freedom and ability
to choose hell.
How can we choose what the Lord does not intend us to choose?
Some angels who had grown up in heaven once asked Swedenborg: “How
could man turn away from God and turn to himself, when a person can will
nothing, think nothing, and so do nothing except from God. Why did God
permit it?” Swedenborg replied:
Man was so created that everything he wills, thinks and does appears to himas
being in him and thus from him. Without this appearance a person wouldnot be
a human being, for he would be unable to receive anything of goodand truth or
of love and wisdom, retain it, and seemingly adopt it as his own. Consequently
it follows that without this, as it were, living appearance, manwould not have
any conjunction with God, and so neither any eternal life. Butif as a result of this
appearance he persuades himself to the belief that he wills,thinks, and thus does
good of himself, and not from the Lord (even though toall appearance as though
of himself), he turns good into evil in him, and so creates in him the origin of evil.
This was Adam’s sin. (Married Love 444.5)
Another way of seeing the origin of evil amounts to the same thing. The
Lord has created us to have a Self. Having a Self gives us self-identity, a sense
that we are distinct individuals, who can recognize God as an “other” and can
respond to Him with love and belief. Self is a fundamental basis for loving
others and loving God. The love of self is what maintains our Self. The Lord
therefore created us with this love, and also with a love of the world – that is, a
love of the environment that provides the context and the tools for life. These
loves are part of what make us whole beings.2
It is these good loves which become evil when we take the appearances
they foster and make them the reality, when we make their enjoyments our
priorities, when we let them take precedence over our love for others, our love
for what is right and good, our love for God. To do that is to disrupt the order
2 Apocalypse Explained 1143-1145; True Christian Religion 394-395, 403-406; Married Love 269.2-3
376